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COEflRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE WORSHIP OF 



AUGUSTUS C^SAR 



DERIVED FROM A STUDY OF COINS, MONUMENTS, CALENDARS, ^RAS AND 

ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROLOGICAL CYCLES, THE 

WHOLE ESTABLISHING 



A NEW CHRONOLOGY AND SURVEY 
OF HISTORY AND RELIGION 



BY 



ALEXANDER DEL MAR 



NEW YORK 
PUBLISHED BY THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA CO. 

62 Reade Street 
1900 ' 

{All rights reserved) 



TWO COPIES RECEXVEb, 

L/brary of Congress^ 

Office of the 

t^/^-'5- 19G0 

Register of CopyHgfjjs^ 



50980 

COPYRIGHT 
BY ALEX. DEL MAR 

i8qq. 



SECOND OOPV, 






THE WORSHIP OF AUGUSTUS CABSAR. 



CHAPTERS. 



PAGE. 



Prologue, ....... 

Preface, ........ 

Bibliography, . . 

I. — The Cycle of the Eclipses, 
II. — The Ancient Year of Ten Months, . 
III. — The Ludi S^culares and Olympiads, 
IV. — Astrology of the Divine Year, 
V. — The Jovian Cycle and Worship, 
VI. — Various Years of the Incarnation, 

VII.— ^RAS, 

VIII.— Cycles, 

IX. — Chronological Problems and Solutions, 
X. — Manetho's False Chronology, 
XI. — Forgeries in Stone, .... 

XII. — The Roman Messiah, . . 
Index, ........ 

Corrigenda, . . . . . . 



vu. 



XI. 



I 

6 

17 

39 

43 

51 
62 

237 
281 

287 

295 
302 

335 
347 



PROLOGUE. 



THE ABYSS OF MISERY AND DEPRAVITY FROM WHICH 
CHRISTIANITY REDEEMED THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
CAN NEVER BE FULLY UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT A 
KNOWLEDGE OF THE IMPIOUS AVORHSIP OF EM- 
PERORS TO WHICH EUROPE ONCE BOWED ITS 
CREDULOUS AND TERRIFIED HEAD. 



WHEN THIS OMITTED CHAPTER IS RESTORED TO THE 
HISTORY OF ROME, CHRISTIANITY WILL SPRING 
INTO A NEW AND MORE VIGOROUS LIFE ; FOR 
THEN ONLY WILL IT BE PERCEIVED HOW DEEP 
AND INERADICABLY ITS ROOTS ARE PLANTED, 
HOW LOFTY ARE ITS BRANCHES AND HOW DEATH- 
LESS ARE ITS AIMS. 



PREFACE. 

THE collection of data contained in this work was originally in- 
tended as a guide to the author's studies of " Monetary Sys- 
tems." It was therefore undertaken with the sole object of estab- 
lishing with precision the dates of ancient history. 

It soon appeared that many of the dates were astrological. They 
were grafted upon the Ecliptical Cycle and the imaginary incarnations 
of the Sun. Such is the case with both the Indian, Chaldean, Egyptian, 
Greek and Hebrew dates of remote antiquity. Even the epochs used 
by the astronomers, which were in India equal to B. C. 3102, in Baby- 
lon B. C. 747 and in Greece B. C. 884, form no exception to this rule. 
They are all astrological. 

This discovery entirely changed the author's plans. Hitherto the 
work had been designed merely as an accessory to other studies: it 
now assumed an interest and importance of its own. The employ- 
ment of the Ecliptical Cycle for computing the lapse of time fur- 
nished a key to the history and progress of ancient astronomy, which 
it was hoped might unlock at least one door to the remote past. 
It proved to be capable of unlocking many. Meanwhile the author's 
attention was drawn to researches of a more practical nature. He 
brought the statistical method to bear upon a comparison of dates 
from ancient sources, of which he now made a more extensive collec- 
tion. The result was the disclosure that the Roman chronology had 
been altered, first, to the extent of 78 years (sunk) by Augustus, and 
afterwards to the extent of 15 years (restored) by the Latin Sacred 
College. It was also perceived that Augustus had changed the Olym- 
piads from five-year to four-year intervals, and had thus altered many 
Greek and other dates to the extent of 108 years. 

He next found that the number of civil months in the year, and 
therefore also the number of days in the months and weeks, were al- 
tered. The year had been anciently divided into ten months, each 
of 36 days, and the months into weeks of nine days. Such was the 
case, not only in Rome, but also in the other states of the ancient 
world. In Rome, the alteration was made by the Decemvirs; in the 



^ 



J 



Viil PREFACE. 

Other states it had been made previously. Everywhere it had marked 
a revolution in government and religion. 

It was at this point that the author resolved to devote himself to 
the serious task of tracing the alterations of the calendar and collect- 
ing such materials as might enable others to reconstruct the shat- 
tered edifice of ancient history. What he saw about him was nothing 
but ruins, but beneath those ruins there were evidently building mate- 
rials, many of which have since been brought to light, 

The subject that next engaged his attention was the Jovian cycle 
and worship, which could not be confidently traced backward in the 
Occident further than the nth or 12th century before our sera, nor 
in the Orient further backward than the 15 th century. It followed 
that the duodecimal and sexagessimal cycles and institutes which 
had been drawn from the orbital period of this planet, were not nearly 
so old as had been pretended. A like examination of the progress 
of discovery concerning the moon's node and the precession of the 
equinoxes yielded analogous results: both were known very anciently, 
but not nearly so anciently as had been assumed. 

Strengthened by these astronomical aids to research, the entire 
series of chronological data were now recast, condensing them as 
much as seemed consistent with exhibiting their significance and mu- 
tual relations, and afterwards arranging the principal ones in clusters, 
with the view to discover their origin and bearing. 

The result was the conviction that the basis of all ancient dates is 
to be found in the religions of the Orient; and that these religions lie 
at the foundation of all the religions of the Occident. In a word, that 
religion was never a special creation, but on the contrary, has been 
the product of Evolution; an evolution which, beginning in India, 
still goes on and will go on forever. 

The worship of Augustus has been admitted by so many eminent crit- 
ics that there can be no longer any doubt about the fact. Its religious 
significance lies in the inferences that are to be drawn from it. With 
these, the author has no present concern. His object has been not 
to make theological deductions, but to recognize an Historical Truth, 
whose admission must, in his belief, precede all attempts to compile 
a satisfactory account of the Roman Empire, or of the Middle Ages, 

It will be shown upon ample evidences that after the submission of 
the Oriental provinces and consolidation of the empire, Augustus 
Caesar set himself up for that Son of God whose advent, according 
to Indian chronology, synchronised with the reappearance of the 
Oriental Messiah; the date being A. U. 691 (B. C. 6s) the alleged 



PREFACE. IX 

year of Augustus' birth; that this claim and assumption appears in 
the literature of his age, was engraved upon his monuments and 
stamped upon his coins; that it was universally admitted and ac- 
cepted throughout the Roman empire as valid and legitimate, both 
according to Indian and Roman chronology, astrology, prophesy and 
tradition; that his actual worship as such Son of God — DivusFilius — 
was enjoined and enforced by the laws of the empire, accepted by 
the priesthood and practised by the people ; and that both de jure and 
de facto it constituted the fundamental article of the Roman imperial 
\and ecclesiastical Constitution. 

Unless these evidences and conclusions are overthrown it will fol- 
low that an entirely new view of the empire, its history, its laws and 
its institutes, including the important one of feudalism, will demand 
the consideration of historians and students. Hitherto the worship 
of Augustus has been kept in the background of Roman antiquities. 
It must now either be explained away, or accorded a more prominent 
position in the history and constitution of that great empire from 
whose womb has issued all the states of the modern world. 



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THE WORSHIP OF AUGUSTUS C^SAR ; 

A NEW CHRONOLOGY AND SURVEY 
OF HISTORY AND RELIGION, 



CHAPTER I. 
THE CYCLE OF THE ECLIPSES. 

OF all the nations of antiquity, the East Indians are the only 
ones whose chronology, albeit like the others fundamentally 
astrological, possesses any such astronomical harmony or such sym- 
phony of dates as, even with the greatest prudence, can be made to 
yield useful and reliable results. The different asras which are still 
used in various parts of India for the computation of time, afford 
valuable side-lights on this difficult but strangely interestfng research. 
The employment of the statistical method, in bringing together a vast 
number of dates, both from India and the numerous other countries 
into which the Brahminical and Buddhic religions and their deriva- 
tives have penetrated, adds great strength to the deductions derived 
from other sources. Finally, the employment by the Indians of two 
principal and several other sets of Divine Years, all founded on the 
Cycle of the Eclipses, brings the whole body of research to such satis- 
factory conclusions, that it would seem to require an overwhelming 
mass of evidence to upset them. 

It is hardly too much to say that a knowledge of the Cycle of the 
Eclipses and of its astrological derivatives ranks with the most im- 
portant historical information within the whole range of human 
attainment; for upon it have been erected all the Divine Years, upon 
these all the mythologies, and upon the mythologies, all the history 
of the ancient world. It is the guide to all religious myths, dogmas 
and doctrines; the clue to religious evolution; the key to chronology ; 
and the finger-post to ancient history. It is older than theMahabha- 
rata epic; it is younger than the present decade, for it was made the 
basis of a proclamation by the Emperor of China so late as January 
28th, 1898; it is the father of the gods, of the zodiac, of the calen- 



2 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

dar, and of all the festivals of all the churches both Oriental and 
Occidental. Philosophers have sold the knowledge of it to the 
temples, and the temples have employed it to amaze, terrify and rule 
mankind. Conquerors in all ages have wielded it as a weapon, more 
potent than armies, or fleets, with which to subjugate states or destroy 
opposing races. Yet, to-day, notwithstanding its extreme simplicity, 
its vast antiquity and its sinister career, it is but imperfectly known 
even to the learned and an absolutely sealed book to the masses. 

The conquests of Darius, Alexander, and Seleucus in India, of 
Titus in Greece, Scipio in Spain, Pompey in Syria, Csesar in Gaul, 
Mahomet in Arabia, Cortes in Mexico, Pizzaro in Peru, and many 
others were all made in the name of Messiahs drawn solely from this 
Mystic Cycle, and whota astrology had taught the conquered nations 
to believel would visit the earth at these periods.* Indeed it has 
served as a ruse du temple and a ruse de guerre for upwards of thirty 
centuries. India has lately been disturbed by seditions, which can 
be traced directly to this source. China is alarmed at the coincidence 
of a New Year's Day and a solar eclipse; while the brother of the 
German Emperor, who must have learnt from the German mission- 
aries in China that a recent year marked the dawn of a new Brahma- 
Buddhic manvantara has exposed himself to the suspicion of using 
this information in order to strengthen his position at Kiao Chao. 

It is a more or less commonly accepted belief, that astronomy is 
the offspring of astrology. The writer's reading and observation 
has led him to the opposite conclusion, namely that astrology is 
a development of astronomy; in other words, that nearly the entire 
mass of fancies, verbalisms, and conceits, known as astrology, owes 
its origin and its strength to previous discoveries in astronomy. 
Astronomy no sooner discovered a fact, than astrology at once 
turned it to practical account. The date of one is, therefore, an 
almost infallible guide to that of the other. The Rev. Edward 
Greswell (Oxon), who has left us twenty volumes of misapplied 
learning on the subject of the Calendar, laboured hard to prove that 
the eclipse credited to Thales of Miletus, B. C, 585, was not fore- 
told from observation, but by means of the Cycle of Eclipses which 
he supposed Thales to have discovered, forgetting that the cycle 
itself could only have been the product of previous astronomical 
observation, extending over long periods of time, and also, forget- 
ting that in another part of his work he pointedly affirmed that this 

' The Aztecs, Peruvians, Chibchas, and other American nations were looking for 
the reappearance of a Messiah when the Spaniards landed in America. 



THE CYCLE OF THE ECLIPSES. 3 

cycle was known to the Egyptians so early as the tenth century B. C. 

The use of the Cycle of Eclipses can not only be traced in Miletus 
to the period of Thales, it belongs to an older period in Egypt and 
Chaldea, and to a still older period in India. Man has practised the ^ 
arts of imposture from so remote an epoch, he has been so ingenious 
in perverting the truth, that no safe reliance can be placed upon any- 
thing that he has directly affirmed or written with reference to 
antiquity. History is not to be gleaned from the memorials which 
have been preserved, but rather from those which have been lost, 
neglected, or forgotten. Man, when viewed generally, is a consti- 
tutional romancer, one who is altogether too cunning to be convicted 
out of his own mouth. The progress of astronomical knowledge, 
which he can neither forge nor pervert, affords much more reliable 
testimony concerning the progress of astrology, and therefore, of 
religion and history, than anything which he has written on these 
subjects. Prominent in this range of knowledge was the Cycle of 
the Eclipses and the sinister use to which he put it. 

Upon this basis the Brahmins erected the most stupendous system 
of superstition of which it is possible to conceive. Upon this system 
of superstition, they superimposed an ecclesiastical organization 
and canon, contrived to last for several thousand years, compared 
with which the most venerable organization of the Western world is 
but a thing of yesterday. This system had probably lasted one 
divine year, before the failure of Parasurama unexpectedly exposed 
its weakness, and opened it to attack. Yet, such was the strength 
of their ecclesiastical organization that it required another divine 
year before this attack succeeded, not, indeed, in overthrowing, but 
in modifying the system of the Brahmins. This modification began 
with the calendar, the precise point of the Parasuramic fracture. 
The man who detected and exposed this fracture, was he who is 
known as Buddha, Tat,^ or Gotama; and the least obvious, yet, 
practically the most important, of the reforms that he instituted, 
was to alter, or at least to suggest the means of altering, the 
division of the zodiac, and of the year, from ten to twelve equal 
parts. 

It is probable that the change from a ten to a twelve months' year 
had its origin in the failure of Parasurama, the tenth incarnation of 
Brahma, or Vishnu, who was to have wound up the affairs of the 

^ The Brahmins afterwards appropriated this name: " Om, Tat, Sat; these are 
considered as the three designations of Brahma." les Chrishna to Arjuna: Bhagavad 
Gita, XVII, 23. 



4 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

world, and to have brought mankind to judgment in the year 1206, 
1 143 or else 11 28 B. C. But at that distant period a political or re- 
ligious revolution, without adequate astrological support, was prac- 
ticably impossible; while astrology, without a positive astronomical 
ground-work, was out of the question. That the Parasuramic failure 
was indeed followed by a long period of disturbance and civil wars, 
ending with the Buddhic reform of the calendar, can only be attrib- 
uted to the discovery, or disclosure, of some great astronomical fact 
which furnished the basis of such reform; and this is most likely to 
have been the discovery of the planetary nature of Jupiter, and the 
determination of the Jovian cycle of twelve years. The Indians 
and Chinese indeed carry their Jovian cycles back to much more re- 
mote periods. But it is easy to prove that these are comparatively 
modern inventions based upon Buddhic divine years, and that the 
actual eera of the Jovian cycles is not much, if at all, earlier than 
the eleventh century, B. C. This was the phenomenon needed, and 
this was the phenomenon employed not merely to explain away the 
failure of Parasurama, but to obtain a further lease of power for the 
Brahminical church. Nevertheless, the movement thus begun was 
disputed for centuries by the contending sects which arose out of 
the Parasuramic failure, and it was not until the second Buddhic 
period or the seventh century in India and China, the sixth century 
in Miletus, Chaldea, Egypt and Greece, and the fifth century, B. C, 
in Rome and the West, that the change from a ten to a twelvemonths' 
year was effected. It is not necessary in this place to dwell upon 
the causes of this remarkable change; we are here only concerned 
with the fact and the evidences of the change, and with the marks 
which still remain of it in our laws and customs. 

For example, four holidays are still observed in the British Isles, 
and in Gaul and in Germany, of whose origin nobody has yet offered 
a satisfactory account. These are Martinmas, November nth; 
Candlemas, February 2nd; Whitsuntide, May 15th; and Lammas, 
August ist. Such are the dates of the Cross Quarter days as fixed 
in Scotland, where they always fall on the same days of the solar 
year. In England, Whitsuntide "term" is May 15th, whilst Whit- 
suntide itself is moveable, because it occurs so and so many days 
after Easter, which, being a lunar festival, becomes, in a solar calen- 
dar, a moveable day. But in Scotland, where the year for all pur- 
poses is solar and "Julian" (i. e., consisting of 365^ days) the 
Cross Quarter days are fixed. Leases are usually dated from two of 
them, or from an approximate day bearing a fixed and permanent 



THE CYCLE OF THE ECLIPSES. 5 

relation to them, the removal terms in leases being May 28th and 
November 28th. In England, hunting and fishing leases are usually 
dated from Martinmas. Similar customs prevail on the Continent.' 

On the other hand, the usual English quarter-days for leases, 
taxes ("rates"), interest-payments, the liquidation of tradesmen's 
accounts, and many other periodical events and settlements are Lady 
Day, March 25th, St. John's Day June 25th, Michaelmas September 
29th, and Christmas December 25th, answering to the equinoxes and 
solstices. 

Why is it that these last-named English quarter-days are not 
enough for the whole kingdom, and that four other quarter-days are 
found to be in common use, not merely in Scotland, but also (as to 
hunting leases) in England; while as popular holidays, or festival 
days, they are observed as universally in one country as the other? 
It is true that Candlemas and Lammas are no longer popular festivals ; 
but this cannot be said of Whitsuntide nor of Martinmas, both of 
which are widely observed. Moreover, why is it that these 
submerged Cross-Quarter days are still venerated in France and 
Germany? 

Why is it, also, that except as to Michaelmas, which, however, is 
only four days out, the usual quarter-days are just three months 
apart, whilst in the case of the Cross-Quarter days it is two months 
and a half from Martinmas to Candlemas, three months and a half 
from Candlemas to Whitsuntide, two months and a half from Whit- 
suntide to Lammas, and three months and a half from Lammas to 
Martinmas? 

The solution of these problems belongs to the changed division of 
the year, from ten months of thirty-six days to twelve months of 
thirty days (with five epagomense), and it incidentally brings to 
light some of the most interesting and significant facts in the whole 
range of ancient history and religion. 

^ " In England for many municipal and parochial purposes the year is reckoned 
from Lady Day or (else from) Michaelmas Day. The tenure of lands is generally 
computed by the same periods. In Scotland the period in contracts of landlord and 
tenant is often dated from Lammas or Candlemas." Sir Geo. Cornewall-Lewis, 
" Anc. Astron," 29. Many interesting survivals of Whit-sun (Baal-time) and of Mar- 
tinmas, such as Weeping for Thammuz, or Osiris, called the " Festival of the Dead," 
will be found in Haliburton's work. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. 

TO begin with, the Roman calendar, our own calendar, has been 
seriously altered. By this is meant not merely that it was 
altered ten days by Pope Gregory in 1582, or eleven days by the 
British act passed in 1752, but that, to say nothing of other altera- 
tions, it was altered long before either of these dates, by changing 
the ancient year of ten months, aggregating 365 days, to a year of 
twelve months, aggregating 365 days. The date of this alteration 
in the principal states of the world was approximately as follows: 

Remarks. 
Digambara aera of Buddha. 
Rev. E. Greswell, Fasti Catholici, I, 509. 
Thales, or else Anaximander. 
Zoroaster. 
Nebu-chadn-Izzar. 

Solon changed lo x 36=360, to 12 x 29^=354. 
Calendar falsely attributed to " Ramses III." 
Cambyses, of Persia, " King of Asia." 
Calendar of the Decemviri. 

To be told that the months anciently had 36 days each, or even 
an average of ;^6 days, will probably surprise the majority of our 
readers; yet there is scarcely an institute of antiquity so well 
attested. 

"According to the Babylonian Table the zodiac contained ten 
gods called the ' Ten Zodiac Gods- ' The commentators, more 
intent upon identifying Xisthrus with Noah, have entirely overlooked 
the significance of the Ten zodionsof Babylon, whose numbers prove 
not only a division of the zodiac and the celestial sphere into ten 
parts, they also imply a division of the year into ten months and in- 
dicate the epoch of the Table. This must be assigned to a period 
after the very ancient division of the year into eight and before its 
comparatively later division into twelve, civil months. 

' Doane's " Bible Myths," p. 102, citing Dunlop's " Son of the Man," p. 153, n. 



Country. 


B.C. 


India 


662 


China 


657 


Miletus 


592 


Persia 


590 


Babylon 


582 


Athens 


582 


Egypt 


547 


Syria 


524 


Rome 


451 



THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. 7 

The prytanes or Senate of Athens consisted of 500 persons, 50 
from each of the ten tribes, into which the whole population of 
Attica was divided. Each of these bodies of 50 representatives, 
served the public a tenth part of the year. None of them could 
serve less than 35 days nor more than 38, the last only in an inter- 
calary year. It follows that the months contained on the average 
between 35 and 38 days. The Choiseul Marble, on which the course 
and succession of the prytanes for the whole year is recorded, proves 
that in fact the months had 35 or else 36 days each. Numerous 
other inscriptions prove that the current day of the month and the 
current day of the prytanea were the same.* 

** In the time of Homer, as in that of Romulus, the year was not 
divided into twelve, but into ten months " — annum fuisse non duo- 
decim mensium, sed decern. Aulus Gellius, III., 16. 

It may be added that Homer's " Odyssey," XI., 313, attributes 
to Poseidon, who is speaking to Tyro, an expression which implies 
a year of ten months. Greswell, " Kal. Hellenicse," VI., 394. 

The day sacred to Hermes and to Maia, the fourth day of the 
tenth month, when Hermes, Mercury (or les) was born, as men- 
tioned in Pisistratus' version of Homer's Hymns, is also regarded as 
an implication of the same fact. The day sacred to Hermes and 
Maia was Martinmas. 

The prytanes also prove by their number and function the ancient 
division of the Greek year into ten months. Cf. Potter's Antiq. 
Greece, I, 507. 

"When the Founder of the City (that is to say, Romulus, who in 
the Augustan age was also alluded to as Quirinus) divided the peri- 
ods of time, he appointed that there should be twice five months in 
the year . . . The first month was Mars . . . But Numa 
added two to the ancient months . . . The market day (that is 
to say, Mercury's day, merk-day, mess-day, mass-day, the middle- 
day, etc.) always returns after the ninth revolution." Ovid, Fasti, 
I, 29, 38, 43, 54. 

"Numa's first undertaking was to divide the year into twelve 
months according to the course of the moon." Livy, I, 19. 

"Junius Gracchianus, B. C. 124, Fulvius, B. C. 189, Varro, Sue- 
tonius and other writers all agree that the Roman year was divided 
into ten months. According to Fulvius it was Numa, while accord- 
ing to Junius it was Tarquin (Superbus) who altered it to twelve 
months." Censorinus, de Die Natale, XX, (written A. D. 238). 
' Rev. Edw. Greswell, K. H., I, 84-88. 



8 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

"Romulus divided the year of the Romans into ten months. The 
first (month) was March." Macrobius, Sat. I, 12. 

Augustine of Hippo also mentions ancient "years" (evidently 
meaning months) of s^ days, "the tenth part of the lunar year." 
"City of God," XV, 12. 

Geminus, in his " Uranologia " testifies that the Roman year was 
originally divided into ten months. 

Eutropius, I, 3, says "Numa Pompilius divided the year into 
ten months." Except that Romulus and not Numa was the sup- 
posed author of the ten months' year, this testimony is corroborative. 

Says Diodorus, lib. I: "Even at this day, now that there are 
twelve months in the year, many (persons) live a hundred years." 

" The fifth month in the Sibylls is July, because anciently the first 
was March and there were but ten, until Numa." Procopius, Bell. 
Gothica, I, 19. 

"Nor did the ancients have as many calends (a metonym for 
months) as there now are; their year was shorter (in months) by a 
couple of months." Ovid, Fasti, III, 98. 

The Pythagoreans regarded the number Ten as perfect. 

" The number Ten was then in great esteem. . . For that rea- 
son Romulus respected the conventional number in forming the year 
(of ten months)." Fasti, III, 132. 

Livy says of the year of Rome 291, or B. C. 463, that " The elec- 
tions were then held and Lucius ^butius and PubliusServilius being 
chosen consuls, they began their office on the calends of August, 
which was at that time considered the beginning of the civil year." 
As March was by all accounts originally the first month, a change 
from March to August in a twelve months' year would have been a 
change from the first to the sixth month, a difference of only five 
months. Such a change being more than a quarter of a year and 
less than half a year would have entailed great inconvenience and 
confusion. But in a ten months' year no such mischief would have 
resulted, because in such a year the change from March to August 
would have amounted to exactly half a year. There can conse- 
quently be but little doubt that at the time this change was made 
in the New Year Day, the year was divided into ten months.^ 

While all the authorities agree that the division of the year was 

^ It will not do to argue that the ten months' year was not a full year of 365 or at 
least 360 days with 5 epagomenae, for it is in such years that Livy, Cicero, Dion and 
I*lutarch computed the reign of Romulus at 37, while other ancient writers cumputed 
it at 38 years, an interval that forms a definite part of the accepted chronology. 



THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. g 

changed from lo to 12 parts (duodekameria) there is some diversity 
as to the year when the change was made. Many of the authorities 
piously assign it to Romulus, or Numa; while M. Fulvius Nobilior, 
who was Consul B. C. 189, is reported to have said that the change 
from 10 to 12 months was made by Manius Acilius Glabrio, B. C. 
191, only two years previously. (Macrob. Sat. I, 13, §20.) Hbw- 
ever, Fulvius was confuted by Varro, who cited a brass tablet of 
Pinarius and Furius, B. C. 472, "which was dated by a reference to 
intercalation," says Sir Geo. Cornewall-Lewis, evidently meaning 
an intercalation designed, like those of the Hindus and Chinese, to 
harmonize the 10 and 12 months' year. This "intercalation" will 
be explained further on. The most authoritative statement on the 
year of the change from 10 to 12 months was made by Cassius He- 
mina and M. Sempronius Tuditanus, the last of whom was Pontifex- 
Maximus of Rome, B. C. 185-76. They said that the change from 10 
to 12 months was made by the Decemvirs (B. C. 452-450); and this 
was probably the fact. The apparent disagreement between the date 
of Varro's tablet and the aera of the Decemvirs may be due to the 
alteration of the Roman chronology explained in another place. ^ 

Such are the literary evidences with regard to the change from a 
ten months' to a twelve months' year. It is perhaps unnecessary to 
state that the two new months in the Roman calendar were January 
and February, which are now intercalated between the previously 
last or tenth month, December, and the previously first month, 
Primus, afterwards called March; unnecessary, because the names 
of these months alone would prove the whole case. But there are 
other proofs. The ancient ordinal names of the last four months 
still remain in use to prove not only that the year was anciently 
divided into ten months, but they also attest the place of intercala- 
tion, December is a word which relates to ten, yet December is now 
the twelfth month; November which relates to nine, is now the elev- 
enth month; October which relates to eight, is now the tenth 
month; September which relates to seven, is now the ninth month. 

Still other evidences of the ten months' year are derived from com- 
parative philology; yet these will be adduced last of all, because al- 
though the most popular, they are the least reliable. The calend of 
March was called Messo, from Mesotheus, a surname of Bacchus, 

* Mrs. Gatty dates the change from a twelve to a ten months' year in B. C. 293.- 
According to Pothier, Cicero (de Legg, ii,) fixes it in the consulate of Dec. Brutus, 
which by our computation would be B. C. 200. The statement of the Roman Chief- 
pontiff is far more authoritative. 



lO A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Janus, or Mercury, the god of the open door. In like manner the 
calend of August (five months later) was called Messa, a surname of 
Ceres, the goddess of harvests. From these names sprang the meto- 
nyms messis for harvest times, messis, a crop and many other words 
of like import. Again, as the calend of March, the ecclesiastical 
New Year day, was called /«?- excellence the Messo, or High Mass-day, 
so the calend of August, or the ecclesiastical Mid-year, was called 
the Lesser Mass, or, according to the Rev. Sam'l Johnson, the Lat- 
ter Mass, corrupted, as he asserts by the English, to Lammas. So 
distinctively was this name of messa attached to the middle day of 
the year, that afterwards it was also given to the middle of anything, 
for example mesa^ the middle part, Pliny XIX, 9 ; mesmda, the mid- 
dle salon or hall of a house, Vitruvius VI, 10; mese, the fourth or 
middle string of the seven-stringed lyre, Vitruvius, V, 4; mess-day, 
Mercury-day, merk-day, market-day, or the fourth, or middle day, 
of the septuary week, which day is still the market day in all rural 
places within the limits of the ancient Roman empire; Bru-mess, or 
midwinter, another name for Brumalia, or the festival of Bacchus; 
mezzanine, a middle flooring; mezzo, the middle or half of one; and 
so on. The mediseval monks, in order to dispose of this tell-tale 
word, said that mess, or mass came from missio, to dismiss; but this 
was simply their ipse dixit. They offered no proofs to support such 
a derivation, and they made no attempt to explain the numerous ap- 
plications of the word mess or mass, which had nothing to do with 
dismiss or dismissal. Mess is a word of very high antiquity. It was 
used in India, Tibet, China, Egypt, Greece, Persia and Rome. In 
all these countries it meant the Messiah, the mediator, the interces- 
sor, the one who stood in the middle, between God and man. Not 
to go any further backward in time than the Greek period, it was 
given to Bacchus, who was called Meso-theus, or the Mediator; to 
Poseidon or Neptune, who was called Mesopontus from meso, the 
middle and pontus, the Sea (Racine) ; to Mithra, because she stood 
in the middle between the opposing forces of Ormuzd (Oromesus) 
and Ahriman (Racine) ; and at one period even to Jupiter, called 
Messapea, because he was then regarded as the Mediator between 
Saturn, the Supreme, and his handiwork, the human race. 

Similar evidences are to be found in the names of the Hebrew, 
Syrian, Babylonian, Greek, Egyptian, Chaldean and Indian months. 
They all exhibit in their names an original Ten and an added Two, 
to make up the present Twelve. Take the Syrian months for ex- 
ample: they are Eloul, Tisri I, Tisri II, Canoun I, Canoun II, 



THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. II 

i 

Sabat, Adar, Nissan, lyar, Hisiram, Thammuz and Ab. It is evident 
that Tisri II and Canoun II are after-thoughts, or months interca- 
lated after Tisri and Canoun, in order to make up a present Twelve 
out of an ancient Ten. 

Until this accumulation of evidences is overthrown, it must be 
conceded that the year was anciently divided into ten months. This 
places us in a position to add the corroborative, though less positive, 
testimony of the Cross-Quarter days. 

When the year consisted of ten equal parts or months it could 
only be otherwise equally divided into five periods of two months 
each, or two periods of five months each ; for ten cannot be equally 
divided by any other numbers than one, two, five, or ten itself. As 
the quarter days did not fall on the same day of the month, rents 
were probably paid — and the existing Scottish practice is a proof that 
in fact they were so paid — every half year, that is to say, at the end 
of every five months, or i8o days.* In a period of industrial activity 
— and it will scarcely be denied that in commercial countries, even 
in very ancient times, such periods occurred — a half yearly period 
for rentals and other settlements must have become inconvenient. 
Though the origin and the motive of the change was of a far more 
important and significant character than mere convenience, yet con- 
venience may not have been without influence in rendering the 
change acceptable. When the change did take place, the half yearly 
removal and rent and settlement days had to be — and they were in 
fact — exchanged in favour of quarterly periods. We have now to 
describe the process. It will bring to light some strange matters. 

L-et us take Rome for example. The date is B. C. 452. The year 
cor.jists cf ten months, each of 36 days with five intercalaries. It 
beg; as March ist. In order not to disturb the customary half yearly 
rent and settlement day, occurring August ist, which was also at 
that period the consular day, or beginning of the civil year (Livy 
III, 6), the plan of changing to a twelve months year is to divide the 
first half of the current year into five months each of 36 days and 
the second half into six months each of 30 days, and in the follow- 
ing year to render the change complete by dividing the year into 12 
months each of 30 days. This is the "intercalation" previously 
mentioned. Rents, etc., are henceforth to be paid quarterly. When 

^ In the Bhagavad Gita, a work which Dr. Lorimer assigns to about the year 400 
B. C. but which may be nearly as ancient as the period of the second Buddha, the year 
is divided into two seasons of six months each, that of "the Sun's northern circuit" 
and that of his " Southern circuit." B. G. VIII, 24-25. 



12 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

does the first quarter become due? The middle day, the ides of May, 
which in the 36 day month falls on the i8th. The long subsequent 
decree of Pope Gregory changed the i8th to the 28th. This accounts 
for the Whitsun term, still employed in Scotland. When does the 
second quarter become due? Three months (now of 30 days each) 
from August ist, namely, on November ist. Add Gregory's ten days 
to this and we have November i ith. This is Martinmas. The mid- 
year day, August ist, is Lammas. Six months (each of 30 days) 
from Lammas is February ist. This is Candlemas eve. 

It is true that while the Gregorian change disturbed the ancient 
dates in November, it did not disturb the ancient dates in May; but 
in respect of the Whitsun term the ten days change had to be made 
in order to keep these two rent days at the customary distance, 166 
days, apart. In other words, when Martinmas was advanced from 
November ist to the nth it became necessary, without altering any 
of the other festival dates in May, to advance Whitsun from May 
i8th to the 28th; and this accordingly was done.® 

We have thus accounted for the Cross-Quarter days, but we have 
not yet disposed of this anomalous year. The year B. C. 452 con- 
sisted of ten months each of 36 days (with five epagomense) ; the year 
B. C. 450 consisted of 12 months each of 30 days (with five epago- 
mense), both of them commencing March ist; but this particular 
year B. C. 451, the Year of Change, although it consisted like its 
predecessor and successor of 360 days (with five epagomenge) yet it 
included only 11 months. In order not to disturb Sextilis ist, or 
Lammas day, when the consuls entered upon their office and the 
half year's rents were due in the ten months' year, the first half of 
the year had to have five months of 36 days; while the second half 
had six months of 30 days; total, 360 days, (with five epagomenae), 
but only eleven months. The year of the change began on March 
1st; it ended with the last day of January; consequently in that 
year there were only eleven months in the calendar. The crowded- 
out month first made its appearance in the calendar of B. C. 450; 
and as this month was largely devoted to purification and preparation 
for the New Year, it was called February, after the god of purifica- 
tion, whose name was Februus. 

The long subsequent year, when Julius Caesar rectified the Roman 
calendar, consisted of 445 days and it was called the Year of Confusion. 

^ The American Encyc. Brit., art. " May," remins. us that on the Ides of May was 
celebrated the feast of Mercury. The Ides of May In the ten months' year was Whit- 
suntide, the 1 8th. It is quite likely that one festival arose out of the other. 



THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. 13 

This affords warrant to suspect that the remoter year, when the 
months were begun to be changed from ten of 36 to 12 of 30 days 
each, was called "The Year of Change." Ovid, Virgil, Pliny, 
Servius, Hyginus and other ancient authorities allude to a once- 
existent zodiac of II signs and therefore to a year of 11 months; a 
number and mode of division, which, if employed permanently, would 
have led to extreme confusion and inconvenience. For this reason 
these allusions can only be reasonably applied to the unique Year of 
Change; the only year, which, according to our view, ever really 
consisted of eleven months or was represented by 11 zodions.^ 

There is indeed a Greek legend that " Musaeus," who is assigned 
to a very remote age (B. C. 1406) invented the zodion of the Archer, 
which might be taken to imply that before his time the Greek zodiac 
had but II signs and the year only 11 months. On the other hand, 
the legend may merely mean that the Hindu sign of a human-archer, 
Dhanaus, or Danaus, was altered by "Musaeus" to the Greek sign 
of the centaur-archer. The former is to be seen on the gold coins 
of Darius; the latter is in the zodiac of to-day. Seriously, however, 
a Musaeus of the 15th century B. C. belongs not to history but to 
mythology. The date B. C. 1406 is astrological. Musaeus is the 
Greek form of Moess, one of the names of the god Dionysos, 
Bacchus, or Buddha. It was adopted by several Dionysian writers, 
the latest of whom flourished in the fourth or fifth century of our 
sera and composed a work entitled ' ' The Loves of Hero and Leander, " 
some lines of which were borrowed from Nonnus, the Dionysian, 
another follower of the same cult. As for the legend in Servius 
that in the Alexandrian zodiac the Scorpion occupied the space of 
two-twelfths of the zodiac, until one-twelfth was given to its Claws 
in order to form what is now known as the Balance — we may consign 
it to the realms of poetry.® 

' The American Encyc. Brit., art. "Zodiac," gets rid of the difficulty by reciting 
that "the earlier Greek writers — Eudoxus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus — knew of only 
II zodiacal symbols, but made one do double duty, extending the Scorpion across the 
seventh and eighth divisions." This scheme, which creates the Balance from the 
Scorpion's claws, admits twelve divisions but only eleven signs, an incongruity that 
the succeeding sentence tries but fails to explain: " The Balance obviously indicating 
the equality of day and night, is first mentioned as the sign of the autumnal equinox 
. by Geminus and Varro and obtained through Sosigenes of Alexandria official recogni- 
tion in the Julian calendar." The point is not who first mentioned the Balance as 
the sign of the autumnal equinox, but when was the zodiac first divided into twelve 
parts and into how many parts was it previously divided, not during some exceptional 
year, but permanently. 

* Cf . Drummond on the Zodiac, p. 76. 



14 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Pliny (N. H., II, 6) credits the invention of zodiacal signs in the 
Western world to Cleostratusof Tenedos, who first invented, adopted, 
or added, those of Aries the Lamb and Sagittarius the Archer. 
*'*■ Signa deinde in eo Cleostratus, et prima Arietis ac Sagitarii." 
Pliny makes Cleostratus later than Anaximander, whose sera he fixes 
in Olym. 58 (B. C. 548). In the Periplus of the Pseudo " Scylax of 
Caryanda," Cleostratus is alluded to as a contemporary of the real 
Scylax. This makes him later than the Indian expedition of Darius 
Hystaspes, the maritime portion of which was conducted by the real 
Scylax, about B. C. 508. If these dates could be depended upon, 
the period when the Athenians adopted, what will appear to be the 
Buddhic subdivision of the zodiac into twelve parts and changed 
their year from ten to twelve months, was, according to our present 
calendar, about B. C. 508. The subsequent alterations of 108, in- 
cluding 78 years in the calendar, which were effected by Augustus 
Csesar, a subject yet to be treated herein, has thrown many ancient 
dates out of joint. Could they be re-established, it would probably 
be found that the adoption of the 12 months' year in Greece took 
place somewhat earlier than B. C. 508; mostlikely between that year 
and the date of the calendar reform of Solon; in other words, about 
B. C. 550. 

However, it will be observed that in addition to several explicit 
accounts of the change from a ten to a twelve months' year, we have 
several accounts of changes in the zodiac. One says that " Mus- 
seus" invented the sign of the Archer; another, that two zodions 
were made out of one, namely, the Balance and Scorpion out of the 
Scorpion); while still another asserts that Cleostratus first gave to 
the zodiac the Lamb and the Archer. The Rev. Dr. Greswell, with- 
out even suspecting that the zodiac previously had but ten signs, be- 
lieves that the most recent zodions are the Waterman and the Fishes; * 
but his evidence on this point has to be weighed against that of 
Pliny. 

If these conclusions concerning a ten months' year fail to agree 
with the appearance of a 12 months' year in the Hebrew Scriptures 
or with the opinions of those expositors who claim for the Hebrew 
Scriptures a greater antiquity than the time of Solon, it is because 
such a claim lacks the support of evidence. There is nothing what- 
ever but conjecture in favour of the greater antiquity of the existing 
version of the Old Testament. There is no extant manuscript of the 
Bible older than the Christian gera, nor indeed is there one so old ; 

9Cf. Fasti Catholici, III, 397-8, 410. 



THE ANCIENT YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. 15 

whilst the Bible itself does not pretend to be older than the period 
when Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law and carried it to 
Shaphan, the scribe. This was about B. C. 454." 

So far as they relate to the order and succession of the zodions 
and months the foregoing explanations rest to a certain extent upon 
the assumption that the Censors permitted the Augustan writers to 
tell the whole truth with regard to this matter and that therefore 
such order has not been disturbed; but a passage in John of Nikios 
throws some doubt upon this point. That chronicler states that Au- 
gustus caused the months of August and February to change places 
in the calendar." This may only mean that originally when the two 
additional months and signs were added by the Romans, one each 
was placed at the end of the fifth and tenth month, namely February 
after Quintilis and January after Decembris; and that afterwards 
Augustus placed them where they are now. (See chapter VII, year 
B. C. 452). In several other states of antiquity the added months 
were placed one each after the original fifth and tenth month ; but 
the practice was not uniform, for in some of them the added months 
were both inserted (at least so they appear now) after the original 
tenth month, whilst in other states the added months were inserted 
(at least so they appear now) in other parts of the calendar.'^ It is 
not necessary for present purposes to go any farther into this part of 
the subject. The reader who desires ampler information will find 
it in the author's monograph on "Ancient Calendars."" 

The Calendar has been a potent instrument in the hands of impos- 
ture. The Egyptians realized this so keenly that they seized a pro- 
pitious interval in their long life of slavery to make their kings swear 
never to alter the calendar." 

The classical Greeks carved their planispheres and calendars upon 

'°I Kings, xii. 

" On this point consult Ovid, Fasti, II, 47, and John of Nikios. 

'^ Clinton, Fasti Hellenics III, xii, censures Archbishop Usher for venturing to 
make precise calculations as to the position of the months in the calendar prior to and 
after its correction by Julius Cffisar; "a precision for which we have no authority.'' 
Sir Geo. Cornewall-Lewis, in his " Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the An- 
cients," p. 237, has something to the same effect. 

'^ It may, however, be stated in this place that Plutarch, Cicero, Varro, Ovid and 
Macrobius agree in asserting that "anciently" February was the last month. As 
there was no February more ancient than the twelve months' Consular year which 
began with Lammas, it would appear that February was originally placed between 
Quintilis and Sextilis, or July and August. 

'* Nigidius Figulus, as quoted in the Scholiast on the Aratus of Germanicus Caesar; 
Dupuis, II, 122; Greswell, II, 389; Wilkinson, II, 255. 



l6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

monuments of marble, but one has only to examine the ingenious alter- 
ations in the pieces of this description now in the Museum of the 
Louvre, to be convinced how vain was their precaution.'* The Ro- 
mans of the Republic insisted upon a nail being driven each year 
into the facade of the aerarium. The Koran forbids intercalation. •* 
All to no purpose. The calendars have been altered repeatedly, 
not only as to days and months, but even as to years. The most 
remarkable of these alterations were effected by Augustus Caesar. 

'^ See Chapter XI, herein. 

" Sura IX, 37 cited bv Albiruni. 



17 



CHAPTER III. 
THE LUDI S^CULARES, AND 01.YMPIADS. 

THE great festival of the Ludi Saeculares which marked the 
sexagessimal subdivision of the Divine Year, was probably 
inherited by the Romans from the Etruscans. It is said to have 
been fully explained in the "Life and Customs of the Romans" by 
M. Terentius Varro, a work written, as we learn from passages in 
Pliny, Nonius and Cicero, in A. U. 704, or 705 ; but now lost.^ Ac- 
cording to Censorinus, Varro stated that the Etruscans had celebrated 
seven of these festivals at the following intervals of time: 105, 105, 
105, 105, 123, 119 and 119 years; total 781 years. This informa- 
tion Varro said he got from the Annals of Etruria, written in the 
eighth cycle ; octavum turn demum agi (Censorinus xviii) ; that is 
to say, the eighth cycle was then begun. If A. U. 704 means 50 
years before our sera ^ and Varro wrote directly after the beginning 
of the eighth cycle, it follows from the foregoing data that the Etrus- 
can sera, from which the Cyclical Games took their periods, began 
t)efore B. C. 831. On the other hand, if, as we shall presently furnish 
reasons to believe, the Varronian date, A. U. 704, means 35 years 
before our sera (a difference from the previous hypothesis of 15 years) 
then the Etruscan sera began on or before B. C. 816; thus, 35 plus 
781=816. According to Dodwell, the Etruscan sera began with 
Procas, king of Alba, B. C. 816, the very same year to which 
the present calculation conducts us.' According to Sir Isaac 
Newton the Roman aera was 120 years wrong. What we shall en- 
deavor to prove is that it was formerly 78 years and is still 6^ years 
wrong. 

It was a common custom in ancient times for conquerors to adopt 
the sera of the conquered and call it by a new name. Thus the 
Babylonians, when they overthrew Nineveh, adopted the sera of 

^ Nat. Hist. XIV, 17; Nonius, voc. Coecum et Obstrigillare; Cic. ad Att. VIII, 2. 

^ To use the word "sera" or its corrupted form " era " with reference to any period 
before Augustus, is, strictly speaking, an anachronism; however, the word has now a 
broader meaning than it had originally. 

^ Dodwell's Chronology:, " De Veteribus Grsecorum Romanorumque Cyclis." 



l8 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Tiglath-pil-Esar II, B. C. 748 and called it that of Nebo-Nazaru; the 
date being that which is recorded by Ptolemy and the orthography 
being that of Censorinus. The Persians, when they conquered 
Hither India, or Beluchistan, adopted the aera of the Cingalese 
Buddha and called it that of Cyrus. While the Moslems, who con- 
quered the Persians, adopted the aera of lesdigerd and called it that 
of Mahomet's Flight. When, probably during the fourth century 
before our asra, the Romans found it necessary to adopt an sera from 
which to date their mythology or history, they had before them only 
the ffiras of Nebo-Nazaru and Procas; for, as will presently be shown, 
the Greek Olympiads were not used in Roman works until Tim^us 
wrote his history about B. C. 300. As between an unfamiliar and 
comparatively recent and a familiar and more ancient fera, it can 
scarcely be doubted that the Romans previous to this date preferred 
Procas to Nebo-Nazaru ; and that in fact they adopted the Etruscan 
aera for their own and gave it the name of Romulus. In such case 
the received asra of the Nativity, which begins with the 754th year 
of Romulus, is out of harmony with the calendar of the Roman Com- 
monwealth, to the extent of ()2> years. It is not meant by this that 
we of to-day are in fact (>2) years more distant from Romulus or the 
pretended Foundation of Rome than is shown by the calendar; but 
that we are in fact 63 years more distant from the period which was 
assigned by the Romans of the Commonwealth to that astrological 
personage and misdated event; and therefore that our calendar is out 
of harmony with Commonwealth dates to that extent. It is also out 
of harmony with Oriental dates to the same extent. To the Romans 
of the Commonwealth there was nothing before Romulus. He was 
the Son of God and Founder of the City. To the writers of the 
Augustan age (who had the annuals of Etruria before them) there 
was Procas before Romulus and there were two generations of time 
between Procas and Romulus. Livy, who was a preceptor in the 
household of Augustus and whose History of Rome was read by that 
prince before it was published to the world, tells a pretty story of 
Numitor and his daughter Rhea Sylvia, who was a vestal virgin a 
century before vestal virgins were created in Rome, and who in that 
anachronical and immaculate capacity begat Romulus and Remus 
and floated them in an ark among the bulrushes; but nobody believes 
this story now, and the two generations between Procas and Romulus 
may be summarily dismissed to the realms of the imagination. 

With regard to the length of the Etruscan cycles it will be ob- 
served that the first four were of equal length, namely, 105 years. 



THE LUDI S/ECULARES, AND OLYMPIADS. 19 

Then occurs a great change from 105 to 123 and next to 119 years. 
The change was doubtless due to the discovery by the Etruscan 
astrologers that they had previously miscalculated the annualised 
cycle of the eclipses and that instead of being 105 x 6=630 years, it 
was as they next supposed 666 years; and that to the first four cycles 
of 105 years there should be added two more each of 123 years to 
complete the term. But before the sixth Ludi Saeculares came 
around it seems to have been discovered that not 666 but 662 years 
was the true period of the node; hence to the first four cycles of 105 
years and the fifth cycle of 123 years they added 119 for the sixth 
cycle; and this interval remained unchanged until Etruscan astrol- 
ogy was superceded by Roman. In the meantime the Greek astrol- 
ogers had learnt from the Orient the true period of the ecliptical cy- 
cle, which is neither 630, nor 666, nor 662, but 658^ years. This 
cycle, upon being divided by six, gave approximately no years for 
the Ludi Saeculares; and, as appears from the following lines of 
Horace, written A. U. 738, such was the interval adopted by the 
Romans : 

Certus undenos decies per annos 
Orbis ut cantus referat que ludos 
Ter die clara, totiesque grata 
Nocte frequentes. 

The seventh Etruscan cycle (of 119 years) when added to the oth- 
ers, makes an average of in years, or only one year more than the 
"ten times eleven years " immortalized in the Saccular Hymn. 

A glance at our chapter VII on ^ras will convince the reader that 
most, if not all, of the aeras of ancient nations were based on the 
Eastern incarnations. Thus the Assyrians adopted the sera of les 
Chrishna and assigned it to Tiglath-pil-Esar; the Chaldeans adopted 
the same Eera and ascribed it to Nebo-Nazaru. In each case a few 
years were added. The Hindu date of the re-incarnation (birth) of 
les Chrishna was, B. C. 736 (Table B). The Assyrians and Chal- 
deans added 12 years to this and made their sera B. C. 748. To this 
the Etruscans added 68 years to make the sera of Procas, which to 
the Romans of the Commonwealth, was the sera of Romulus. Proofs 
of these alterations will be furnished as we proceed. 

In erecting a new sera, the first and most necessary step is the 
acceptance of the established one for the basis of the proposed one. 
Universal custom, the arrangement and due order of historical data, 
the accepted chronology of events and numerous other circumstances 
stand in the way of change. Hence Julius Csesar, although the odd 



1 



20 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

period of his assumption of divinity must have impressed upon him 
the desirabihty of altering the established sera of Rome by many 
years, is not known to have pursued any such attempt, unless indeed 
he tampered with the Greek olympiads, of which we cannot be cer- 
tain. However, as time advances, opportunities occur to render 
such changes practicable and these opportunities have usually been 
seized upon to establish a new sera and efface or conceal the true 
origin and identity of the sera which it was desirable to displace. 

Such an opportunity presented itself to Augustus. After the bat- 
tle of Actium and the closure of the temple of Janus, the world was 
at the feet of this prince and it was in his power to make whatever 
changes he pleased. His assumption of sovereignty took place at a 
period when no known incarnation of the deity, whether Chaldean, 
Greek or Roman, was precisely due, although one had just passed. 
Therefore to make himself out to be that Son of God, that incarna- 
tion of the deity, which the poets and astrologers of his court pre- 
tended was presaged in the Sibylline books and which character he 
afterwards assumed and proclaimed upon his coins and marbles, it be- 
came necessary for him to fit his Apotheosis to the Ludi Sseculares, 
or rather the Ludi Sseculares to his Apotheosis ; for there was noth- 
ing equally available in astrology to hang it on. This, by itself 
would not have been difficult, for the Ludi as we have seen, had not 
previously been celebrated with very scrupulous regularity; and the 
confusion and demoralization of the times lent every facility to his 
object. But it so happened that Rome was now placed in direct 
maritime communication with India and that the period of the Indian 
re-incarnation (that of Quichena or Salivahana) had arrived.* The 
immense body of religious mythology generated in the Orient had 
long since scattered its seeds throughout Bactria, Western Asia, 
Greece, Egypt and Etruria; regions which were now comprised 
within the Roman Empire and whose religious prepossessions it was 
to the last degree important for Augustus to utilise.^ The problem 
for the Roman astrologers v/as therefore to fit the Apotheosis of 
Romulus Quirinus and seven Ludi Sseculares to the proposed Apothe- 
osis of Augustus Quirinus. In other words, it was necessary to 

•* " Embassies from the Kings of India have been many times sent to me, which has 
never before occurred under any Roman ruler." The Testament of Augustus, Son of 
God, engraved upon the Temple of Ancyra, art. XXXI. 

^ I have seen in the possession of General Sir Montague McMurdo some sculptured 
heads of les Chrishna or Salivahana, of the Grasco-Bactrian aera, which unite the placid 
calm of the Indian conception of Buddha with the intellectual features of the Greek 
school; the combination producing an effect both noble and fascinating. 



THE LUDI SjECULARES, AND OLYMPIADS. 2 1 

prove, so far as the calendar could be made to prove it, that the re- 
cent Indian re-incarnation was a false one and that of Augustus the 
true one, the sequel to that of Romulus Quirinus, the incarnation 
foretold by the Cumsean Sibyl and long expected by the Western 
world. To achieve this result it was necessary for the Augustan 
astrologers to destroy 76 or 78 years of recorded time; in other 
words, to sink that number of years from the Roman calendar.® 

Let us now examine the various accounts that have been per- 
mitted to reach us of the year of Romulus, or the year when Rome 
is said to have been founded by Romulus. These accounts may with 
convenience be divided into two classes. I, Those written during 
or after the age of Augustus; and II, Those written before the age 
of Augustus. As it is the Augustan chronology which is on trial, we 
begin by dismissing Class I without discussion. It comprises Dion- 
ysius of Halicarnassus, M. Terentius Varro, as reported by Plutarch, 
Pomponius Atticus, Cornelius Nepos, as reported by Lactantius, 
Messala Corvinus and Eutropius, all of whom give the foundation 
of Rome in Olym. VI, 3, equal to B. C. 753; Censorinus, who gives 
Olym. VI, 4 or B. C. 752; Porcius Cato, Solinus and Eusebius, who 
give Olym. VII, i, or B. C. 751; and Diodorus Siculus, as reported 
by Ceorge the Syncellus, who gives Olym. VII, 2, or B. C. 750. 
There is also a mutilated passage in C. Valerius Paterculus which 
gives Olym. VI, 2, or B. C. 754 and the statement of Orosius, which 
places the sera of Romulus, some time during Olym. VI. If, as we 
shall endeavor to prove, Augustus altered the calendar, it is useless 
to look for the truth in any of the direct or explicit statements made 
on this subject during or after his reign. It may occur in some 
round-about way ; for the most subservient writers have sometimes 
taken the pains to preserve an important truth in a disguised form ; 
it may be deducible from other circumstances ; but it is not to be 
looked for on the surface; for to place it there meant death, or else 
exile and oblivion. 

Class II comprises Timgeus, the Sicilian, who lived during the 
fourth and third centuries before Augustus and who is alleged to 
have stated that the sera of Rome began 38 years before the first 
Olympiad (that is, the Olympiad employed by Dion. Hal.); Quintus 
Ennius, who died B. C. 169 and who tells us that Rome was founded 
since '•^ Septigenti sunt paulo plus vel minus anni ;" Polybius, who 
lived during the second century before Augustus and who fixed the 

* Just one Calippic cycle. 



J 



22 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

sera of Rome at Olym. VI, 3; Quinctus Fabius Pictor, who flour- 
ished over two centuries before Augustus and who gave the sera at 
Olym. VIII, I ; L. Cincius Alimentus, of the same period, who fixed 
the sera of Rome at Olym. XII, 4; and Cicero, who in his Repub- 
lica fixed the sera of Rome in the same year as Timaeus. All these 
writers, except Ennius and Cicero, are reported by Dion, of Halcar* 
nassus (Ant. Rom. I, 74), their own works having perished.' But 
let us listen to Dion's exact words: "Timasus, the Sicilian (by what 
computation I know not), places it (the last re-inhabiting or build- 
ing of the City, or by what name soever we ought to call it) at the 
same time with the building of Carthage, that is, in the 38th year 
before the first Olympiad; Lucius Cincius, a Roman senator, about 
the fourth year of the twelfth Olympiad ; and Quinctus Fabius, in 
the first year of the eighth Olympiad.'" Polybius is mentioned by 
Dion, in another place. When converted into the Christian sera, that 
with which we are most familiar, these seras of Romulus stand as fol- 
lows; Timseus and Cicero, B. C. 814; Ennius, about B. C. 876; Poly- 
bius, B. C. 750; Fabius Pictor, B. C. 747; and L. Cincius Alimentus, 
B. C. 728. Among these various dates that of Timseus has the fol- 
lowing recommendations in its favour: 

First. He was the earliest writer of all; and it was during his aera 
that the calendar was first published in Rome (B. C. 304). 

Second. He was the son of K. Aromachus of Tauromenium and 
was universally regarded as an historian of credit, a fact which is 
vouched for by the frequent references to his works in Dionysius, 
Cicero, Livy and other writers. The former especially lays great 
stress on his varied learning and his exactness in chronology.^ 

Third. Timseus was a Sicilian Greek and had no interest in mis- 
stating the date which the Sicilians or Romans of his time believed 
be true. 

Fourth. He wrote before tne Incarnation myth was revived, 
which Julius Csesar formulated and Augustus personified and upheld, 
in Rome ; and which had to be maintained at the expense of chro- 
nology by making it fit the Ludi Sssculares, or else some other epoch 
of astrology. 

Fifth. In choosing an «ra for the Incarnation, or else the Apothe- 
osis, of Romulus, it is inconceivable that the Romans of the Common- 
wealth should have chosen one more recent than that of Nebo-Nazaru, 

■" The fragments of Polybius mention no date. 

^ Tiiis work of Dionysius was written 30 years after the Apotheosis of Augustus. 

» Dion. Hal. Book V. 



THE LUDI S^CULARES, AND OLYMPIADS. 23 

or that of Procas, In the fixing of mythological or religious seras the 
remotest one is usually of the most recent manufacture ; otherwise 
the myth to which it is attached runs the risk of losing every advan- 
tage that is to be gained by the assumption of superior antiquity. 
Indeed this may be termed the very basic law of mythological chro- 
nology; and examples of its operation maybe found in the histories 
of all the ancient states. "* .,..--- — 

Sixth. Evidences that the Augustan chronology was currupted ap- 
pear in every direction. The works of the earliest Roman historians 
have all disappeared. Of Quinctus Fabius Pictor, Lucius Cincius Ali- 
mentus, Marcus Portius Cato, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Lucius Cal- 
lius Antipater, Cnseus Gellius, Caius Licinius Macer, Lucius ^lius 
Tubero, Quintus Valerius Antias, or Lucius Sissena, not a vestige re- 
mains, beyond the brief references to these authors which appear in 
the works of the Augustan writers. Under the pretence of piety 
Augustus ordered the collection and destruction of numerous ancient 
and contemporary works. Of these, two thousand perished in a sin- 
gle aicto da fe. (Suet. Aug. 30.) Of the few that were spared, all 
have been mutilated. Quintus Ennius is known to us by little more 
than his name. Polybius is hacked to pieces; the historical works 
of Cicero have all perished; Cornelius Nepos is in fragments and 
without dates; of 142 books in Livy's History of Rome, but 45 re- 
main, and many of these are mutilated or corrupted; of Ovid's Fasti, 
out of 12 books, but six remain; Manilius has been largely tampered 
with; many others have been divested of dates; and Varro, the most 
voluminous of the Augustan writers, is known to us only by two de- 
tached and imperfect pieces. In all these works the chronology, 
when any chronology appears, is suspicious and bears the look of 
having been altered. Names, generations and dates fail to agree. 
The lives of men are thrown into one age, while their works furnish 
evidence that they lived in another; and the archaeological remains 
bear similar testimony. '' 

Seventh. During the Commonwealth it was not the custom to 

'" " Athens, Thebes, and other states employ fables to add dignity to their history," 
Lucian, Dialogue on Falsehood, ed. Irwin, p. 128. 

" An instance of this sort appears in Plutarch's Camillus, where he says that Herac- 
lides Pontus lived shortly after the capture of Rome by the Gauls. Heraclides was a 
disciple of Plato and afterwards of Aristotle. Plato was 41 years of age when Rome 
was taken, and he died in his 80th year. Aristotle was not born until a year after 
Rome was taken, and he died aged 63 in Olym., CXIV, 3, (B.C. 321). At the period 
assigned to Heraclides, Aristotle could hardly have been old euough to teach. 



24 ' A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

reckon from Romulus, but by the consulates. (Pliny Nat. Hist. 
Ill, ix, 13.) Timaeus, who was not a Roman, is the earliest writer 
known to us who together with the Olympiads used the sera of Rom- 
ulus. Piso the historian, if indeed he used the seera of Romulus at 
all, was probably the earliest Roman who did so. Therefore the 
Olympian equivalents of Commonwealth dates which are furnished 
by some of the Augustan writers are of suspicious validity. 

Eighth. The early records of Rome were all destroyed when the 
City was burnt by the Gauls, and there appears to have remained no 
Roman official documents upon which the Augustan writers could 
have constructed a valid and continuous chronology; so that they 
must have either accepted or altered that of the republican writers, 
or else drawn one from their own imaginations. 

Ninth. The Ludi Sseculares, mentioned by the historian L. Cal- 
purnius Piso Frugi, as having been celebrated in his own time, were 
dated by him, A. U. 596. This is evidently a date by the Timaean 
calendar, that of the republic, in which the year of Romulus was 
fixed 38 years before the first four-year Olympiad; for A. U. 596 
(Tim^ean) agrees with A. U. 518 (Augustan) in which year, accord- 
ing to the Augustan Quindecemviral records, the fifth Ludi Sseculares 
were actually celebrated, and these were undoubtedly the Ludi men- 
tioned by Piso Frugi. 

According to the post- Augustan Fasti Consulares, one Piso (the 
name was legion) was consul in B. C. 133. This would be A. U. 
620-1 (Christian) or else A. U. 605 (Augustan) or else A. U. 681 
(Timsean). If Piso was consul that year, he could not, upon our 
hypothesis, have been the historian Piso, or, if meant to be the his- 
torian, then the Fasti have dated him, as they have dated many of 
the events and notabilities of the Commonwealth 78 (since altered 
to 6;^ years) out of his time; but this was only a trifling alteration 
to the calendar-makers whom we are discussing; and if they misdated 
Piso they probably did so without the slightest hesitation or com- 
punction. The names of the consuls given by Censorinus are of 
course from the same source as the 15 year alteration which appears 
in most of his dates. But the post- Augustan astrologers did not do 
their work skillfully. They should have wholly destroyed the book, 
or effaced all the dates. Unable to perceive the significance of Piso's 
date in Censorinus, the recensors left it unaltered. That date and 
the remark from Piso that a New Cycle began in his time prove that 
Piso's date of A. U. 596 is by the Timsean calendar. 



^ 



THE LUDI S^CULARES, AND OLYMPIADS. 25 

COMPARISON OF THREE CALENDARS: 
Timsean. Augustan. Post-Augustan. 

From A, U. 814 (deduct 76)=738 (add I5)=753; for the altered year of Rome B. C. 
From A. U. 816 (deduct 78)=738(add I5)=753; for same. 
From A. U. 596 (deduct 78)=5i8(add I5)=533; for the Ludi Sseculares of Piso. 

r Tenth. The Ludi S^ulares furnishes conclusive evidence on the 
subject. This Cycle and Festival, which according to Horace (and, 
in accordance also with the astrology of the Alexandrian and Augustan 
periods), recurred every no years (and which, therefore, should 
have been celebrated in the years no, 220, 330, 440, 550, 660, 770, 
880, of Rome), was in fact not celebrated in those years, if we reckon 
by the chronology of the Augustan writers. The Augustan chro- 
nology therefore is false. And so the sovereign-pontiff Claudius 
declared, who celebrated this festival in the Sooth year of Rome, 
according to the Augustan chronology, or the 876th according to that 
of Timgeus.'^ Even the year last named was not the precise year 
for the Ludi, which should have been celebrated in the 880th year 
of Romulus, according to Timaeus. But the date given is within 
either two or four years of the proper time ; an apppoximation suf- 
ficiently near to indicate its supposed or attempted correctness. On 
the other hand, the Ludi celebrated by Augustus and Agrippa were 
altogether out of time with the Horatian and astrological intervals. 
The conclusion is therefore unavoidable, that the year of Romulus, 
as accepted during the Commonwealth, was altered by the astrolo- 
gers of Augustus. This alteration amounted to either 76 or 78 years. 
Eleventh. The alteration made no practical difference to the 
Romans. Until after the conquest of Etruria, Rome was a City, 
not an Empire; and long seras, if ever used at all, were borrowed 
from the Chaldeans, or the Greeks, as the Nebo-Nazarene ^ra, or 

1^ Says Suetonius in Claudius, 21: "Claudius, assuming that Augustus had antici- 
pated the Ludi Sseculares, which he had celebrated out of their true season, caused 
them to be re-celebrated, . . "When (according to custom), the herald proclaimed 
that Ludi would take place ' which no living person had ever seen or would ever see 
again ' he was laughed at (by the Augustans); because there were several persons then 
living who had seen the previous Ludi Sseculares and some even, who, having taken 
part in those, now took part in these." Says Pliny (N. H. VII, 49): " Stephanio . . 
danced in two Ludi Sseculares, those celebrated by the god Augustus (' divi Augusti ') 
and those by Claudius Csesar in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval 
which elapsed between them was 63 years," instead of no. Says Tacitus (Ann. XI 
11): " During the same consulship . . the Ludi Sseculares were celebrated, an in- 
terval of 64 years since they were last solemnized in the reign of Augustus. The chro- 
nology observed by Augustus differed from the system of Claudius j but this is not the 
place for a discussion on that subject." 



26 1 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the Fall of Troy, or iJie Olympiads, rather than from the compara- 
tively recent adoption or invention of the incarnation of Romulus. 
^ Twelfth. The Timsean date of 38 years before Ol. I, i (equal to 
B. C. 814) also appears in Cicero's "Re Publica," I, 38, 39, 58, and 
II, 70; as that of the foundation of Rome. This is an especially 
valuable corroboration of Timaeus, because a great part of this work 
of Cicero was recovered m recent years from a palimpsest and there- 
fore it had probably not been subjected to that general alteration of 
dates by the Latin Sacred College which befell the other works, of 
classical antiquity. 

Thirteenth. The Timsean date, as corrected, namely, to B. C. 816, 
is also that of Porcius Cato, the Censor, who declared that the 
Foundation of Rome was 432 years after the Capture of Troy, an 
event that, according to several authorities current in Cato's time, 
synchronised with the First Panionic Cycle, B. C. 1248. Thus: 
1248 — 432 = 816. It is true that Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who 
reports the Roman gera of Cato, has put, or has been made to put, a 
different construction on it, by using the date for the Capture of Troy 
which is attributed to Erastothenes; but there is no evidence that 
Cato wrote anything which would authorise Dionysius to limit his 
sera of Rome by using such a measure of Troja Capta. Moreover, 
we only know Erastothenes through Clement Alexandrinus. We are 
therefore warranted in rejecting the Troja Capta imputed to Diony- 
sius and in retaining the years of Troy and Rome left us by the older 
historians. These dates are B. C. 1248 for the former and B. C. 816 
for the latter." 

Fourteenth. Upon referring to chap. IX herein it will be observed 
that Tacitus stated that the same interval of time existed between 
/ the Foundation of Rome and its burning by the Gauls, as between 
the latter event and the burning in the reign of Nero. The burning 
under Nero occurred in July, A. D. 64; the burning by the Gauls in 
B. C. 384, an interval of 447 years and a fraction. Add 447 years 
to B. C. 384 and the Foundation would appear to have been in B. C. 
831. Deduct the 15 years since added to the calendar by the Latin 
Sacred College and the result is B. C. 816, the year of Piso, 
Cicero, etc. 

Fifteenth. The Timsan chronology tallies with the Etruscan aera 
as well as the Etruscan cycles. The sera of Procas was B. C. 816; 
that of Romulus according to Timseus was B. C. 814; and according 

^^ Cicero, op. cit ; Dio. Hal, I, 74; II, 2; Herodotus, Euterpe, 145. 



THE LUDI S^ECULARSeS, AND OLYMPIADS. 2"] 

to Cicero, Tacitus, and probably also Cato, B. C. 8i6. The cor- 
roboration here is both striking and circumstantial. 

These circumstances and considerations alone warrant us in reject- 
ing the Augustan chronology and accepting that of Tim^us; but 
there is more behind. When the dates of the Ludi Sasculares are 
arranged in tabular form, the motive of the alteration will be more 
clearly perceived; it was evidently done in order to bring the Ludi 
Sseculares to the Apotheosis of Augustus, which it was intended to 
celebrate in the consulate of C. Furnius and C. Silanus. Deduct 
from the Augustan corruption of 76 years the 15 years correction 
of the Christian chronologers and we have the Roman sera of Timsus 
and an explanation of the difference which now exists between the 
Oriental and Western seras.'* As dates are often as difficult to suc- 
cinctly explain as to understand, let us recapitulate, even though at 
the risk of being deemed tiresome. 

The re-incarnation of les Chrishna or Salivahana occurred, accord- 
ing to the Indian chronology, in B. C. 736. To this the Chaldeans 
added backward 12 years, making it B. C. 748, and called it the ^ra 
Nebo-Nazaru. To this again the Romans of the Commonwealth 
added backward 66 years, making it B. C. 814, and called it the aera 
of Quirinus or Romulus. (Timseus). Thus 78 years were added 
backward, to the sera of the incarnation. From the ancient (the repub- 
lican) sera of Romulus, Augustus subtracted 76 years and thus made 
the Augustan sera of Romulus B. C. 738. (Cincius says Olym XII, 4 ; a 
difference of ten years). Reckoning the Ludi S^culares at intervals 
of no years from the dates at which they were alleged to have been 
formerly celebrated, they were next due, according to the Augustan 
calendar, in A. U. 738, which year Augustus determined to distin- 
guish by his own Apotheosis; only, it is to be observed, that six Ludi 
make 660 years, whilst the astrological interval between one incarna- 
tion and another was 658 years; a difference of two years. To this 
sera of A. U. 738, later astrologers, after having adopted the 
Augustan sera for that of Jesus Christ, and so used it for several 

14 It is curious to observe how repeatedly this corruption of the Oriental calendar 
obtrudes itself into a comparison of seras. From les Chrishna B. C. 736, to Romulus 
B. C. 814 (TimjEUs), is 78 years; from the re-incarnation of les Chrishna B. C. 78, to 
the beginning of the present sera is 78 years; from the Christian sera -to Vicramaditya 
is 78 years; from the Apotheosis of Romulus to the first Ludi Saeculares, according to 
the Augustan chronology, is 78 years; while between the Ludi of Augustus and those 
of Claudius, plus the 15 years since added to the calendar, is 78 years. Many more 
similar instances of the kind could be adduced. 



sS A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

centuries, added 15 years, and thus made the present sera. By this 
addition of 15 years to the Roman reckoning they made the year of 
Romulus B. C. 753 and the Apotheosis of Augustus B. C. 15; 
whereas in fact the aera of Augustus (his Apotheosis) and the «ra of 
Jesus Christ were identically the same down to the time of that later 
astrologer, whoever he was, that made or completed the restoration 
of 15 years to the calendar." 

TABULAR SUMMARY OF ALTERATIONS TO THE CALENDAR. B. C. 

Hindu £era of the birth of les Chrisna, or Quichena . . . 736 

The Chaldeans added . . . . ... 12 

Making the Nebo-Nazarene sera . . ... 748 

The Romans of the Commonwealth added two generations . . .66 

Making the eera of Quirinus, or Romulus, according to Timseus . . 814 

Or, if according to Piso, for which see further on, add . . . .2 

Making the sera of Quirinus or Romulus according to Piso . . 816 

According to what was evidently the scheme of the Augustan astrologers, the 
Ludi Sseculares celebrated the Birth, not the Apotheosis of Romulus, which 
was removed to, or is pretended to have occurred in, his 33rd year. Hence 
the first Ludi fell no years after his Birth, or 78 years after his Apotheosis 
and the remainder of the Ludi at intervals of no years, in A. U. 188, 298, 408, 
518, 628, and 738, the year selected by Augustus for his own Apotheosis, By 
deducting 76 instead of 78 years the Ludi Saeculares and the Augustan Apothe- 
osis would come together; hence from Timasus deduct 76" or from Piso . 78 

Augustan jera of Romulus, or Quirinus . . . , . 738 

Deduct for one Ludi of 78 years and six Ludi each of no years, total . 738 

Apotheosis of Augustus, the second Quirinus: completion of the Seventh Ludi o 

The Latin Sacred College added to the calendar, years , , . .15 

Thus throwing the Apotheosis of Augustus back (to where it now stands) . 15 

Add to B. C. 15 the years of the Augustan ^ra of Romulus, makes . B. C. 753 

The reason why Augustus fixed his Apotheosis and ^ra in A. U. 
738 was to fulfil the prophecy of the Cumean Sibyl. The rebellion 
of Marc Antony had deferred the Peace which the Sibyl foretold 
would mark the Advent of the Son of God and which Virgil some- 
what prematurely sang in his Fourth Eclogue. The battle of Actium 
had yet to be fought; and until this was over and the temple of 

^^ Ten years of this appear in the difference between the present Anno Mundi of 
Greece and Rome. This alteration has been ascribed by the Benedictine authors of 
" L'Art de Verifier les Dates," to the period of Diocletian; but the authority is sus- 
picious. It is not stated when or by whom the remaining five years of alteration were 
made. The whole extent of the post-Augustan alteration — 15 years — makes just one 
Indiction. 



THE LUDI SiECULARES AND OLYMPIADS. 29 

Janus permanently closed, the prophecy awaited fulfillment. This 
famous battle was decided in A. U. 723 or 724. After this, and only 
after this, was the temple of Janus permanently closed, and the Peace, 
thus signalised, marked by the Apotheosis and ^ra of Augustus 
Caesar. 

Following this date it appears to have been the common practice 
of the Roman Church, whether pagan or christian, to employ the sera 
of Augustus, or Anno Domini, the year of our Lord; the pagans 
meaning our Lord Augustus Caesar and the christians our Lord Jesus 
Christ; but both referring to the same year, namely A. U. 738 (now 
known as A. U. 753). The object of the 15 years afterwards added 
was evidently to destroy the identity of these two ^ras. The occa- 
sion of the alteration was an astrological event. In other words, the 
reason why an interval of just 15 years (no more nor less) was cre- 
ated between the seras of Augustus and Jesus was evidently the dis- 
covery of that astrological conjunction recorded by Antimachus (who 
flourished B. C. 403) as having occurred in Olym. VI, 3, which is 
equal to the 23rd year after the beginning of the four-year Olympi- 
ads. (Plut. in Rom.) This was 15 years before the sera of Romu- 
lus, as fixed by the chronology of Augustus. The discovery may 
have been made directly after Plutarch published his book, that is 
to say, in the reign of Hadrian, who, by the way, was a great admirer 
of Antimachus and whose example doubtless led to a wide reading of 
that ancient author. But, as stated above, it does not appear to have 
been definitively utilised until the Middle Ages. To win the Romans 
from the degrading worship to which they had been forced by the im- 
pious decrees of the Caesars, the christian authorities were constrained 
to employ such devices as were suited to the opinions and prejudices 
of the times. Among these was that well established law of astrol- 
ogy, that incarnations would or must occur only at the period of a 
conjunction of the Sun and Moon. Hence the Latin papacy pro- 
claimed that Jesus was born at Midnight, on the winter solstice and 
was conceived on the preceding vernal equinox, when "the Sun and 
Moon conjoined over Jerusalem. " To connect the incarnation of 
Jesus with that of Romulus was an obviously indispensable condition 
to the firm establishment of the christian religion in Rome. This 
was done by fixing the year of Romulus in Olym. VI, 3, in which, 
according to Antimachus, such a conjunction had actually occurred. 
Olym. VI, 3 was the year B. C. 753, according to the present chro- 
nology. Consequently this year was indicated by the christian chro- 
nologers as that of Romulus; and thus the sera of Augustus was 



J 



30 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

forced backward 15 years and made to appear 15 years B. C. ; whereas 
it was not and it is not the fact. 

The Augustan sera (that of the Apotheosis) is preserved by the 
poet Ansonius in two places. In Epigramatica IV, ii, 148, he says; 

Annis undecies centum conjunge quaternas^ 1104 

Undecies unamque super treiterida necte: 11 plus 3= 14 

Usee erit geternse series ab origine Romse 11 18 

And in Epigramatica, III, 149, he says: Mi7/e annos centumque et 
bis fiuxisse novenos, (/. e. , iiiS. ) The year 1 1 1 8 is given as that of the 
current year since the Foundation of Rome in the year A. D, 380, 
when Ansonius was consul, under Gratian. Subtract 380 from 11 18 
and the quotient is A. U. 738, which is the true sera of Augustus in 
the Augustan chronology. Had the christian aera, as now settled, 
namely A. U. 753, been known to Ansonius, he would have had to 
date his consulate in A. U. 1133, thus: 753 plus 380=1133. 

We are now prepared to arrange the Roman Ludi Sasculares in 
tabular form with the view to exhibit their relation to the 15 year 
change in the calendar which was made some time during the Mid- 
dle Ages. 

The Ludi S^culares. 



Actual year A. U. 


Proper 




Years from 


Equivalent 


of celebration. 


Year 


Reputed Consulate or reign, from the 


Augus- 


in Chris- 


Censorinus.* 


A. U.* 


Quindeceraviral records. 


tus. 


tian sera. 


78 


78 




660 


B.C. 675 




188 


188 




550 


565 




245 or 298 


298 


]\I. Valerius and S. P. Virginius 


440 


455 


305 or 408 


408 


M. V. Corvinus and C. Petilius 


330 


345 


518 


518 


P. C. Lentullus and C. L. Varus 


220 


235 


605, 608 or 628 


628 


M. E. Lepidus and L. A. Orestes 


1 10 


125 


737 


738 


Augustus: Cos. C. Furnius & C. Silanus "' 


15 


841 


848 


Domitian. Suetonius: Dom. 4. 


no 


A. D. 95 


957 


958 


Septimius Severus. 


220 


205 



* These years of Rome, " A. U.," are according to the received chronology. 

The last figure of the first column shows the year when, according 
to the Quindecemviral records quoted by Censorinus, the Ludi Saecu- 
lares (all excepting the first two) were actually kept; the observance 
of the the first two cycles not being recorded. Hence Censorinus 
calls the third one, the first ; but this can only mean the first one ac- 
tually kept, for it was unquestionably, at the lowest calculation, the 
third Cycle. In addition to the Cycles shown in the table, Censor- 

1^ This consulate fell in A. U. 738, by the Augustan calendar. In most modern 
date-books it is dated A. U. 727 or B. C. 27; the discrepancy is explained by the ten 
years' difference mentioned in a previous note> plus one year, due to the modern cus- 
tom of subtracting " B. C." dates from A, U. 754 instead of A. U. 753. as formerly. 



THE LUDI S^CULARES AND OLYMPIADS. 3.1 

inus, in another place, informs us that Piso recorded a New Cycle in 
A. U. 596. As shown above, this was evidently the year of Romu- 
lus by the Timgean calendar and means the Cycle observed in the 
year A. U. 518; the difference between 596 and 518 being exactly 
78 years. Another Cycle was celebrated by the emperor Claudius 
in A. U. 876 (Timsean) or A. U. 800 by the Augustan calendar. This 
was evidently meant for the Eighth iio-year Cycle from the Nativ- 
ity of Romulus, which cycle would occur in A. U. 880 (Timsean) ; a 
subject treated in another place. It must be remembered that the 
interval of the Ludi Saeculares was as nearly as practicable, but not 
exactly, one-sixth of the astrological cycle of 658^ years. Hence 
between one Great Cycle and another, two years had to be dropped 
to make the Small Cycles (the Ludi) agree with the Great Cycles. 
As the period of 876 years embraces the whole of one and part of 
another Great Cycle, the approximation of four years (as between 
876 and 880) is sufficient to indicate the identity of the two inter- 
vals. Corroboration is derived from a curious phrase in Censorinus, 
which, probably because it was not understood, was left unaltered 
by the corrupters of his manuscript. He notices an alteration of the 
calendar that was made in the second consulate of the emperor An- 
toninus Pius and C. Bruttius Prsesens, which was "just 100 years" 
previous to his own time and 876 years forward from Nebo-Nazaru; 
from which it would appear that Antoninus Pius celebrated, in some 
way or another, precisely that same number of years from Nebo- 
Nazaru that Claudius did from Romulus, namely 876. Censorinus 
adds that " we are to-day really in the hundredth year of this Annus 
Magnus," which can only mean 100 years from the Eighth Age of 
the Great Year of Nebo-Nazaru, celebrated by Antoninus Pius. 

According to Basil Kennett (Rom. Antiq. , p. 301) there is ancient 
authority for the belief that the Third Cycle was celebrated in A. U. 
330, which was the proper Timaean year for it; but we have not yet 
been able to discover the original passage from which Kennett drew 
this information. 

Sylla's abortive aspiration to become the Sacred Personage whose 
cycle was indicated by the Ludi Saeculares, which, says Plutarch, 
were predicted and expected in his time, affords a further corrobora- 
tion of the Timaean calendar. According to the present chronology 
Sylla was born in A. U. 616 and the Sixth Ludi had been celebrated 
either a few years before, or after, he was born, i. e., either in 605, 
608 or 628; hence, as their interval was more than a century, it is 
inconceivable that he should have expected them to be celebrated 



32 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

again in his own time. But if we admit that the Timsean calendar 
was still used by the Romans, the difficulty is at once removed. By 
the Timsean calendar the Sixth Ludi were due in A. U. 660 and if, 
as it is most likely, the date of Sylla's birth was borrowed from that 
calendar, before it was changed, then he would be 44 years of age 
when the Festival recurred; a conclusion that agrees with the other 
details of his biography. Carr (Rom. Antiq. p. 65) also states that 
a Cycle of the Ludi was celebrated by Caracalla in A. U. 952; but 
unless our calendar is wrong this would relate to his father Septi- 
mius Severus, for Caracalla did not obtain the throne until A. U. 
964. Still other Cycles were celebrated by the emperors Phillip and 
Honorius in A, U. 1000 and 115 7 respectively. These last it will 
not be necessary to discuss." 

The second column shows the years when the Ludi Sseculares 
should have been kept and a New Cycle begun. According to this, 
Augustus celebrated the Cycle one year before the correct time, 
even by his own chronology; but such was the case only in appear- 
ance. The year of Romulus began in April ; that of Augustus (based 
upon the Julian year) began with March or January. If the New 
Cycle was celebrated, as is likely, on Pariliana, it was in the year 737 
Old Style, or 738 New Style. 

The third column shows the consulate, or else the reign, during 
which the Cycles are said to have been celebrated. These consulates 
are from the Quindecemviral records. As whoever altered the 
Augustan to the present dates was compelled to alter the names of 
the consuls, it is all but certain that the consulates given in the table 
are spurious; and probably of less value than the alternates men- 
tioned by Censorinus, which may possibly be genuine. 

The fourth column shows the number of years counting from 
Angustus backward or forward. A person living in the reign of 
Augustus would by this computation be obliged to believe that the 
Cycles had been duly celebrated in the past at the correct astrological 
interval of "eleven times ten years"; and therefore that Augustus 
must be the veritable re-incarnation of Quirinus, between whose 
Apotheosis and his own there were precisely Six Cycles or (barring 
two years) exactly one astrological Great Year of 658 years.'® 

" On January i, A. D. 1300, the Ludi Saeculares were revived by Pope Boniface 
VIII, with the object of attracting pilgrims to Rome. They were at first appointed 
for every 100 years, then for 50, 33 and 25 years. After 19 such festivals were ob- 
served, the Reformation put an end to them. Gibbon, VI, 558. 

'^ For another explanation of the two years of discrepancy see Chap. VII, years 
B. C. 814 and 307. 



THE LUDI S^CULARES AND OLYMPIADS. 33- 

Augustus' Cycle was the seventh; beginning the (ecclesiastical) year 
in March, he was born in the seventh month; his zodiacal sign was 
the seventh, or Capricorn, which he stamped on his coins, etc. This 
astrological twaddle and more of the same sort the reader will find 
in the garrulous Suetonius. 

The fifth column shows the result produced by the 15-year altera- 
tion of the calendar effected by the post-Augustan astrologers and 
pontiffs. This alteration indicates that the christian sera, which it 
is pretended was discovered, invented, or deduced, by Dionysius 
Exiguus, is nothing more nor less than the Augustan ^ra, which the 
christian astrologers found in common use and were therefore fain to 
accept and adopt. In short, the present sera of the Incarnation is 
really the Augustan sera, altered by 15 years; just as the Augustan 
*' A. U. 738 " is the aera of Quirinus altered by 78 years; while that 
of Quirinus is the Nebo-Nazarene sera altered by 12 years. It is 
evident that the sera of Augustus was invented for him by Manilius, 
or some other astrologer of his own court. As to the period and 
authors of the post- Augustan calendar we have sufficiently indicated 
them in other portions of this work. 

The reader will bear in m.ind that it is not the existence, nor the 
story, nor the heavenly mission, nor the divine attributes of Jesus 
that are herein questioned; it is simply asserted that the sera which 
we now use is in fact the sera of Augustus, altered by post- Augustan 
astrologers, under direction or with consent of the Latin Sacred 
College, to the extent of 15 years; and that, leaving out of present 
view the intermediate alteration made by Augustus, the year of 
Rome now used is 63 years out of harmony with the year of Rome, 
as reckoned at the time of Timseus, Piso, Ennius, Sylla, Cicero and 
Tacitus. '^ 

Under all the ancient hierarchical governments the sera was inva- 
riably reckoned from the Nativity, Apotheosis, or Ascension of an 
Incarnated god, or Deified Ruler; witness the seras of les Chrishna, 
Buddha, Nebo-Nazaru, Romulus, Alexander the Great, theSeleucidse, 
the Ptolemies, Julius Csesar, etc. Under the ancient republics the 

'^ If it be admitted that Julius (or else Augustus) altered the Olympiads from five 
to four-year intervals and their epoch from Iphitus B. C. 884 to Coroebus B. C. 776, 
then in such case the date of L. Cincius Alimentus, namely Olym. XII, 4, receives a 
new significance. In the four-year Olympiads this is equal to B. C. 729, which is an 
inadmissable date; while in the five-year Olympiads it is equal to B. C. 826, which is 
within ten years of the sera of Procas, and of the Foundation of Rome according to 
the various authorities quoted. The ten years of discrepancy is accounted for in a 
previous note. 



<1 



< 



34 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

sera was reckoned from the incumbencies of public officials, as the 
archons of Athens, or the consuls of Rome. Sometimes, though 
much more rarely than is represented by chronologists, the sera was 
reckoned from the foundation of cities. But under the hierarchies 
the sera was invariably reckoned from an Incarnation. In fact the 
practice continues to the present day, both in India, Thibet, China 
and Abyssinia. The fulsome and impious acclamations of Manilius, 
Virgil, Ovid, Horace and other poets of the Augustan court leave 
leave us no room to doubt that this practice was followed by Augus- 
tus ; and that to bring the Ludi Sseculares to the year of his own 
Apotheosis he sank 78 years from the calendar of the Commonwealth 
and destroyed or altered all the literary works that were supposed to 
clash with his pretension of superhuman origin and the theory it in- 
volved of synchronism with the sacred period of the Divine Year, the 
Incarnations and the Ludi Sseculares. 

Still further corroboration of these views is derived from those 
passages of Censorinus, which, not being attached to any precise 
date, were probably, for that reason, left unaltered. For example, 
his quotation from Piso is taken from the latter's Annals of the 
Seventh Cycle (Annali Septimo). This agrees with the Timaean 
chronology, but not with the Augustan, according to which Piso lived 
in the sixth cycle, the seventh only commencing with Augustus. 
Again Censorinus says that "the eighth (Etruscan) cycle " had begun 
"in Varro's time." This agrees with the chronology of Timseus. In 
an another place (XVII) Censorinus says that " the day of the death 
(of Romulus) marked the end of the first cycle." Therefore the 
Second Cycle began with the 33rd year of Romulus, reckoning from 
his Apotheosis, or the 37th of his reign, which was precisely the 
theory advanced by the Augustan astrologers and afterwards sup- 
ported by the testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plu- 
tarch.'" . 

^^ Plutarch in "Numa" places the death and ascension to heaven of Romulus in 
"the 37th year from the building of Rome and his reign." In " Romulus " he says 
that " Romulus is said to have been 54 years of age and in the 38th of his reign 
when he was taken from the world." Dionysius says that Romulus died in the 37th 
year of his reign, which he begins with the first year of the decennial archonship of 
Charops of Athens, which he places in Olym. VII, i. (In the five-year Olympiads 
this would be B. C. 817 or 816.) In the chronology of Rome, Dionysius makes Numa 
succeed immediately after Romulus and says nothing of an interregnum; neither does 
Plutarch; whilst Livy mentions it specifically; and though he says in one place that 
it lasted for one j^ear, he stretches it in his chronology to two years, killing Romulus 
in A. U. 37 and enthroning Numa in A. U. 39. To render matters still worse Dion- 
ysius makes a mistake of one year in adding the regnal periods of the first seven kings 



THE LUDI S^CULARES AND OLYMPIADS. 35 

So much for the Ludi Sseculares; now for the Olympiads. There 
are reasons for believing that either Julius Caesar or Augustus, or 
both of them together, altered the olympiads from five to four years 
and their epoch from Iphitus to Coroebus. These reasons will now 
be briefly set forth. 

First : The Olympiads were always called by the Greeks penta- 
eteris and by the Romans quinqennales, both of which terms mean 
periods of five years; not of four years. Some examples of this 
practice occur in the passages cited below. In ancient times, when 
the year consisted of ten months each of 36 days, the pentaeteris 
were celebrated every fifty months. The five-year period was called 
pentaeteris for the same reason that a five-sided figure is called penta- 
gon, and the five first books of the Bible the pentateuch. The reason 
is that penta is the Greek word for five. 

Second: Writers previous to the Augustan age and some even 
during the Augustan age, especially the poets, whose verses could 
not be so readily altered as prose writings, explicitly stated that the 
olympiads were periods of five years, the same as the Roman lustra. 
Where Ovid, who was at the time, (as he tells us in another passage), 
just fifty years of age, writes that his lifetime is equal to ten olym- 
piads, he makes a similar statement by indirection. Among the 
writers alluded to are Pindar, Olymp.\ III, 33; X, 67; Nemea 
XI, 30; Ovid, Pontics, IV, 6; Tristia, IV, 8; IV, 10; Metam. XIV, 
324; Martial, IV, 45, 3; Suetonius, Nero, 53; Josephus, Wars, I, 
xxi, 12. 

Third : The olympiads were solemn festivals, kept with a political 
object; the sports and exercises being merely of a secondary or in- 
cidental character. The duration of the festival was five days and 
its object was to appropriate — and by such appropriation to mark — 

of Rome, which he gives separately at 37, 43, 32, 24, 38, 44 and 25 years and adds 
up together as 244; whereas they only make 243. Finally, Plutarch in " Numa " says 
that the Olympiads (and therefore, we may infer, the archonships with them) were 
corrupted by Hippias, the Elean. Amidst this discordance, blundering and corrup- 
tion of texts, about an astrological myth, the astrological Cycles (658, no, and 33 
years respectively), remain our safest guides to ancient dates. According to Michelet 
(Hist. Rom. Rep., 44) Servius, a commentator on Virgil, who is attributed to the 
end of the fourth century, wrote as follows: " The Emperor Augustus related in his 
Memoirs that at the apparition of the comet observed at the funeral of Cjesar, the 
aruspex Vulcatius said in the Comitia that it announced the end of the ninth and com- 
mencement of the tenth Cycle." If Augustus wrote this in his Memoirs (of which 
not a line remains) then he admitted that the Etruscan calendar was over two Divine 
years older than the Roman; a circumstance which indeed is deducible from the chro- 
nology of Ennius and which nobody at that period disputed. 



36 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the five superfluous days, or epagomenae, which constituted the dif- 
ference between the ancient solar year of 360 days and the later solar 
year of 365 days. In short, it was a Monument of the Equable solar 
year; and as such, it became a bulwark of Popular Liberty, against 
the insidious and always menacing device of a lunar year. The 
olympiad opened with sports; it closed with sacrifices; and its hon- 
ours and rewards were the highest objects of Greek ambition. When 
Julius Caesar established bylaw a solar year of 365^ days, the need 
for a quinquennial ceremonial lost its force. Confident that his in- 
stitute of the Julian year would not be overthrown, the quinquennial 
festival was apparently abandoned, as having outlived its usefulness. 
Why continue to rejoice over the 365-day year of king Iphitus, when 
Caesar, who was a King of kings, had safely anchored, in the laws of 
the empire, a better and more perfect year of 365^ days? In his 
turn and in his usual devious and prudent way, Augustus also shelved 
the quinquennial olympiads, by depriving them of their religious 
character, ceremonial and support. Known in his reign as the 
*' Caesarian," they were afterwards called the "Augustan" games, 
and, carrying out the plan of Caesar, he substituted in their place 
the quadrennial games to which he gave the familiar name of Olym- 
piads; coupling them with the ancient ceremonial, religious sacrifices 
and secular rewards. Henceforth the olympiads celebrated not a 
dead Charter of Liberty, but a living one, not a period of five 
epagomenae, to be huddled into a short month (Cronia) every five 
years; but a living Charter of Liberty, a leap-year day, to be cele- 
brated ever fourth year forever. 

Fourth. After a critical examination of the Greek and other an- 
cient authorities, Sir George Cornewall-Lewis (op. cit. 117) declared 
of the quadrennial cycle, or four-year Olympiads, that there is "no 
historical trace of its actual use in any Greek calendar. " The reason 
of this is quite simple: the Greeks never used a quadrennial cycle. 
Censorinus indeed says that they used a quadrennial intercalation, 
but that it recurred every fifth year! Stobaeus, " Eel. Phys. ," I, 8, 
mentions four "great years" of four, eight, 19 and 60 years respec- 
tively, but in the corresponding^pasages of Plutarch, "Plac." II, 32" 
there is no four-year cycle and the 60-year one is given as 59 years. 
Pliny, II, 48, attributes a four-year intercalary cycle to Eudoxus; but 
no evidence of it can be found in any of the calendars extant and 
even if it could be found it would not mean the Olympiads, because 
they were not used for the purpose of intercalating the calendar, but 

^^ Also Galen, c. 16 and Euseb. " Prsep. Evan." XV, 54. 



THE LUDI S^CULARES AND OLYMPIADS. 37 

as the steps of a chronological aera for marking the flight of time. 
Fifth. It remains to consider the effect upon chronology which 
followed this alteration of the Olympian intervals. If we accept the 
computation of Erastosthenes, as reported by Clement Alexandrinus, 
the Olympiads of King Iphitus began with B. C. 884; if of Callima- 
chus, they began B. C. 828. Between these dates and the epoch con- 
ferred upon the Olympiads named after Coroebus, B. C. 776, the in- 
terval was either 108, or else 52 years; or, if we reckon from Iphitus 
inuente to Coroebus exueftte, it was just 56 years. If Caesar had al- 
ready sunk 108 years from the Greek calendar, Augustus had only to 
sink 30 years less from the Roman calendar, to be enabled to utilize 
all the historical events which the chronologers had assigned to the 
years between B. C. 776 and 884. According to Cicero" the date of 
Callimachus is not, while that of Eratosthenes, is, correct. Hence, 
the quinquennial Olympiads began B. C. 884 and the alteration made 
by Caesar amounted to 108 years. ^^ 

Sixth. The reason for ascribing the alteration of the Olympiads 
to Julius rather than Augustus is derived from the statement in Ci- 
cero's Republica II, 10, where the seras of Lycurgus, and Iphitus are 
fixed at 108 years before the first (quadrennial) Olympiad. This is 
precisely the beginning of the first (quinquennial) Olympiad and also 
the beginning of the tables of Eratosthenes, namely B. C. 884. As 
Cicero was murdered by order of Augustus and Marc Antony, before 
the reign of the former began and therefore before he had lawful 
power to alter the Olympiads, it may be reasonably concluded that 
they were altered by Julius.^* However, there are reasons for be- 
lieving that the alteration was not completed by Julius but by Au- 
gustus. 

This alteration of the Olympiads did not affect the fasti of Rome, 
all of which were later than the aera of King Iphitus; nor did it af- 
fect the historical, but only the mythical or fabulous fasti of Greece; 
because the former were also later than Iphitus. In the fabulous fasti 

22 Repub., II, 10. 

23 See Ch. VII, B. C. 884 and 828. 

^* If it be assumed that the quinquennial olympiads began with the date assigned 
to them by Eratosthenes, then the two series of olympiads would meet in B. C. 344, 
which would terminate the io8th and begin the 109th 5-year olympiad from B. C.884. 
It would also terminate the I08th and begin the logth 4-year olympiad from B. C. 
776. If the quinquennial olympiads began at the date given by Callimachus, then the 
two series would meet in B. C. 568, which would terminate the 52nd olympiad in 
both. The former, the date of Eratosthenes, is regarded as the correct one. The 
meeting of the olympiads was therefore in B. C. 344. 



38 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

there was but a single date which affected the historical fasti. This 
was the date of Troja Capta. As this varied in the classical authors 
from a period that synchronises with B. C. 1334, down to one that tal- 
lies with B. C. 1049, there was abundance of room between these ex- 
tremes in which to fit any event that was deemed worthy of preserva- 
tion in the historical fasti. 

It should be added that most of the seras of Troja Capta that still 
survive are worked backward from the Olympiads ; so that when these 
were shifted, Troja Capta was shifted with them. For example, sev- 
eral of the Greek chronologers counted from the first Olympiad back- 
ward to the return oT the Heraclidae 328 years; and to the Capture 
of Troy 80 years more. Many of the other dates of Troja Capta 
come from suspicious sources, as that imputed to Eratosthenes by 
Clement Alexandrinus, who is assigned to the third century of our 
sera, but who (or his work) may be later. The original of the 
canon of Eratosthenes is " lost;" the mss. of Milan and Venice dis- 
agree; while both contain Hebrew dates." These circumstances in- 
dicate that it was composed or else altered (probably altered) during 
the medieval ages. Other aeras of Troja Capta, as that of the Parian 
marble, are anonymous ; they lack authority ; or, as in this case, they 
have been tampered with and altered.^" It is a suspicious circum- 
stance that the canons of Eratosthenes and Callimachus vary by 56 
years until they reach the date B. C. 776, when they at once harmon- 
ize. It is also suspicious that not a single chronological sera is left 
in Herodotus or Thucydides. As for the canon of Censorinus, it has 
evidently been thoroughly "revised " and altered by the Latin Sacred 
College. In short, we have no reliable, no original date of Troja 
Capta; and if we had one, unless it was recorded in terms of the 
Brahminical or Hindu Divine Year, or of some other astronomical 
conjunction, there would remain no event by which it could be fixed 
in time. 

" Clinton. '^* Rev. J. Robinson. 



39 



CHAPTER IV. 
ASTROLOGY OF THE DIVINE YEAR. 

WE now come to the most significant and important of the 
various influences that have governed the calendar; the key 
to the seras, and the corner stone to astrology. This is the Divine 
Year, or Cycle of the Eclipses, consisting of 223 lunar revolutions 
or 6585^ days (approx.) or 18 years and 10 or 11 days (approx.) 
During this period there will usually be 41 eclipses of the sun and 29 
of the moon. Familiarity with the cycle will enable anyone to fore- 
tell an eclipse with almost unerring certainty; so that in ages when 
ignorance and superstition were rife, the few possessors of this in- 
formation were armed with almost supernal power over the human 
mind. Although there can be little doubt that Thales was familiar 
with the Cycle of the Eclipses and therefore with the periods of 
lunar as well as solar eclipses, yet a century after his time, the 
Greek priests caused Anaxagoras to be thrown into prison for daring 
to reveal these periods. One of the consequences of this ecclesias- 
tical monopoly of science was the defeat of the Athenian army 
before Syracuse, an event which both Thucydides and Plutarch 
impute to an unexpected eclipse of the moon. 

Said Plutarch : ' ' The first person who wrote a clear and bold solu- 
tion of the enlightening and obscuration of the moon was Anaxagoras, 
who now (time of the defeat before Syracuse) had not long been 
dead; nor was his account in everybody's hands, but concealed, 
imparted only to a few, and that with caution and assurances of 
secresy." Five centuries later than these events Pliny wrote in his 
Natural History, XXV, v.: " It is long since the means were dis- 
covered of calculating beforehand not merely the day or night, but 
even the very hour at which an eclipse of the sun or moon is to take 
place, yet the majority of the lower orders still remain firmly con- 
vinced that these phenomena are brought about by enchantments." 
But we are not left to rely upon these ancient authors for examples 
of the popular ignorance of eclipses. It is but a brief period since 
the Chinese were greatly disturbed by the inauspicious occurrence of 



40 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

a solar eclipse on their New Year's day; while very recently the 
Second Adventists of England were awaiting the Reappearance of 
Jesus Christ, which according to their perverted use of the Cycle of 
Eclipses, was to take place within a brief space of time, commencing 
at Easter in the year 1898. It is hardly too much to say that the 
moralist still uses this cycle to awe the sinner, the general to terrify 
the enemy, the hierophant to govern nations. 

When the Cycle of the Eclipses was first determined is unknown; 
when it was first imparted to the public has not been ascertained 
with certainty. It was known to Thales of Miletus in the 6th cen- 
tury B. C. It was known in India long before the second Buddhic 
period, possibly before the first one: because the Brahminical the- 
ogony and the myth of the Ten Avatars was based upon it.^ 
Though known to the Greeks before the reign of Darius, it was 
probably not openly connected in the Occident with the Indian myth 
of the Incarnation before the conquest of India by that monarch; 
for Darius himself was one of the earliest actual "incarnations" of 
the Occident and yet one whose story of godship is not entirely 
free from suspicion of having been constructed in after years by the 
grateful priests of Egypt, whose temples he had spared. In the Orient, 
the Cycle of the Eclipses constituted what might be termed the nun- 
dinal year of Maha-vira or Brahma-Buddha, of which the astrologers 
counted 7,^ to each Divine Year or cycle of the Incarnation, or 360 
(equal to ten incarnations) in the lifetime of the earth. Thus: 

Cycle of Eclipses, 223 lunations, or . . . . 65855^ days 

Divine Year, consisting of as many months as there were days, in the 

Cycle of Eclipses, hence ..... 6585^months 

Great Year. [As at that period there were ten civil months to the 
common year the Divine Year would therefore consist of 658 common 
years and a fraction. By some writers this was called a " Great Year." 
(Plutarch, in Sylla.) At its recurrence the incarnated Sun (les, Iss, 
Issus, etc.), was to be born anew.] . . . 658 years 

Lifetime of the World, consisting of as many years as there were 

months in the Divine Year, hence .... 65857^ years 

Day of Judgment. At the end of this period the human race would 
be brought to judgment and our planet destroyed by fire. 

The astrological elements of these Divine Years can be observed 
in memorials which are separated by 30 centuries of superstition. 
There were 36 deities and ten columns, say Perrot and Chipiez in 
their illustrations of "Egyptian Art" I, 389. There are i(> stages 
in the great Eclipse Cycle, said the second Adventist president of 

' Story of the Gods, " Brahma." 



ASTROLOGY OF THE DIVINE YEAR. 4I 

the British Chronological (but very illogical) society, in January, 
1898. To concede what this system claims, is to grant to a clique 
of jugglers and impostors the ecclesiastical Empire of the earth for 
a period of 6585 years; because to expose its falsity by means of an 
object lesson would require the whole of this immense period of 
time. 

The astronomical appearance is that once in 6585^ days an entire 
cycle of the eclipses takes place, until the initial eclipse recurs and 
the mechanism of the universe has undergone a complete revolution. 
This appearance would have been the same in a ten months' year as 
in a twelve months' year; so that the change in the mode of dividing 
the year is no argument against the antiquity of the knowledge of 
the Cycle. Upon the period of this cycle the busy minds of hiero- 
phants erected a theory at once pleasing and terrifying to the 
superstitious multitude. If in 6585 ^/^ days (as appeared to be the 
case) the movement of the universe was practically renewed, then 
as a matter of course in 6585^ months it would be morally redeemed 
and in 65857^ years it would be both practically and morally de- 
stroyed. Such is the astrology of this cycle and such the logic of 
the Ten Incarnations of lesnu or Vishnu, to each one of whom was 
appropriated a zodiacal sign, a month of the year and a divine year 
of 658 solar years. What the Hindus called a Kalpa, was to 
the Persians a Nauroz and the Greeks a Great or Divine Year. The 
Romans both of the .Republican and Augustan ages divided it into 
six parts, each one of which was called a Saecular period and con- 
sisted of no years. The Romans of the Dionysian age (between 
the Augustan and Christian) had a cycle of 532 years composed of 
6580 months; a basis which is very nearly like the Cycle of the 
Eclipses menstrualized. According to Albiruni, a Moslem writer of 
the tenth century, (ed. 1879, p. 6;^) the Jews of that century used 
this same Cycle as a Paschal period. Perhaps they had it at an 
earlier date. The earliest valid mention of it as a christian paschal 
cycle, is by Argyrus, who wrote in 1372, but I am inclined to believe 
that it was used in the Roman Church by Gregory VII., A. D. 
1073-80. 

Although both of them have the same astronomical basis in the 
astronomical Cycle of the Eclipses, the Divine Year is practically 
astrological, while the Paschal Cycle is practically astronomical; and 
as it is with astrology and not astronomy that we are dealing, we 
will at present confine our attention to the Divine Year of the 
ancients. 



42 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

The significance of this cycle, though obliterated and lost sight of 
in the Occident, since the eleventh century, yet still |retains all of 
its ancient vitality in the Orient. It is the foundatioh of religious 
faith not merely with the Brahmins, but also with 'the Brahma- 
Buddhists and the Moslems. Aristotle cautiously said that at the 
end of every such a cycle a metaphysical revolution occurred, which 
statement was then true of all the world and is still' true of the 
Orient; for have, or had, we not Mirza Ghulam Ahmad pf Quadian 
in the Punjab, as well as the late lamented Mahdi of the Soudan 
and the M'lenga of the Mashonaland, to say nothing of tl^e prophets 
Dimbleby in London, Antonio in Brazil and Schlatter in New York 
and Mexico? In an obscure allusion to the same significant cycle 
Sir William Jones said with increased caution, " I propose the ques- 
tion, but I affirm nothing." As for belief in the annualized'vcycle or 
Lifetime of the Earth we still have the Millenarians, the Millerites, 
the Second Adventists and others to remind us that one of the 
grossest of astrological superstitions has not yet lost its hold upon 
upon the minds of civilized peoples. Ever since the Cycle of the 
Eclipses was discovered mankind has dreamed of a Renaissance 
which was to redress the balance of antiquity in a halcyon age. 
That age has never come and it is safe to say that it never will come 
until the human race has the moral courage to repudiate this cyclical 
phastasm and seek its welfare by the aid of its own powers and 
opportunities. 

- Said les Chrishna: "Whenever there is decline of righteousness and uprising of 
unrighteousness, then I project mj'self into creation. For the protection of the 
righteous and the destruction of the evil-doer and for the proper establishment of 
the law of righteousness, I appear from age to age. ... At the end of a Kalpa, 
all things return into my nature and then at the beginning of a Kalpa I again project 
them." Bhagavad Gita, IV, 7, 8; IX, 7. 



43 



CHAPTER V. 

THE JOVIAN CYCLE AND WORSHIP. 

THE Jovian Cycle, an interval of 12 years and five days, marks 
the orbital period of the planet Jove, or Jupiter. Anciently, 
it appears to have been regarded as a period of exactly 12 years. 
Upon this period astrology built a sexagesimal cycle, consisting of 
five periods of Jupiter, or 60 years; and this was used and is still 
used for the computation of time. Reminiscences of both of these 
cycles, the astronomical and the astrological, appear in the number 
of ourzodions, months, apostles, paladins, jurymen, etc. ; in our sub- 
divisions of the sphere; in the hours and minutes by which we mark 
the time; and in many other institutions and customs. We have now 
to enquire when the Jovian Cycle of 12 years was first discovered, or 
employed. 

The modern Hindus employ 60 and 90-year cycles which go back 
to B. C. 3185, 3174, and 3114, all of which epochs are evidently de- 
rived from, or connected with, the Calijoga (aera) of B. C. 3102. As 
that sera is anachronical (Laplace; Brennand;) therefore, they are 
all anachronical. The Chinese employ 60-year cycles beginning, 
according to various authorities, in B. C. 2717, 2687, 2627, 2397, 
2357, 2337, and 2217. Those of 2357 and 2337 (this probably means 
all of them) are connected with the divine Yao, or Jove; but sexa- 
gesimal cycles of these remote dates are all anachronical.' There 
was no known astronomical fact, no sexagesimal, no duodecimal 
period, to build them upon. They must all be regarded as spurious 
until some important astronomical fact connected with them is proved 

' In the Bhagavad Gita X, 21-39, Chrishna declares among other things that he is 
himself Vrihaspati, or Jupiter, the supreme god. The English translator, Mohini M. 
Chatterji, claims that the work which contains this declaration is 5,000 years old. But 
such a claim is preposterous. In VIII, 24-25, Chrishna incidentally alludes to the 
year of 12 months; an almost certain proof that at least this part of the scripture is 
later than the second Buddha. However, it is possible that the part in which Vriha- 
spati is mentioned may be as ancient as the sera assigned herein to les Chrishna. 
Dr. Lorimer's date for the whole work is about B. C. 400. 



44 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

to have been known at periods when such cycles commenced; for 
astrology never built upon sand. Its whole strength was due to the 
circumstance that its basis was sound. It need scarcely be added 
that that was all that was sound about it; its minor premises and 
conclusions being merely rubbish. The Brahmins built their astrol- 
ogy upon a system of five planets, to wit, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, 
Earth and Mars; and this system continued in vogue for many cen- 
turies after the various dates above mentioned. The Egyptian 60- 
year cycles, mentioned by Martin^ and conjecturally assigned to 
about B. C. 1650, are anachronical. The Greek five-year pentaeteris 
of B. C. 1406, which were credited by some to Zeus-pater and by 
others to Jasius, are barely possible. As for the Persian sexagesi- 
mal cycle, beginning in B. C. 5054 and known as the Turki Cycle, 
it is hardly worth discussing. There is not a scrap of evidence to 
support its claim to antiquity; and in all probability it is not so old 
as the Dionysian or else the Christian mundane seras of the Dark 
Ages, from one or the other of which it appears to be derived. 

The utmost antiquity that can reasonably be assigned to the dis- 
covery of the period of Jupiter, or to the Jovian Cycles, is that of 
the occultation of Purvaphalgunibava (Jupiter) in B. C. 1426, the 
Sun-^ras of India, B. C. 131 2, or B. C. 1306, the corrected Yao sera 
of China B. C. 131 1, or else the Sun or Pan aeras of Greece, B. C. 
1260, 1248, 1 2 19, or 1206; because, according to Diodorus, Pan was 
meant for Jupiter. As for the sera of the Assyrian Sun-God Sha- 
mash, this has not been ascertained. Neither has the age of the 
magnifying lens found by Layard in the ruins of " Nimroud," an in- 
strument whose employment it has been claimed could not long have 
preceded the discovery of the period of Jupiter. The scriptologists 
who have been pleased to identify the City of "Nimroud " or Belus, 
with the astrological personage called "Nimrod," ascribe this relic 
to the 22nd century B. C. Unfortunately for this theory, Herodotus 
has left us a chronology of " Semiramis," the mythical daughter-in- 
law of Belus, which will not admit of Belus or his city being 
assigned to a higher date than the ninth or tenth century B. C. 
Dyaus-pitar, from whom some of the writers hold that the Greeks 
derived their Zeus-pater, will be found in the Vedas; but it is diffi- 
cult to determine when these scriptures were altered, or interpo- 
lated. 

The Hindus call Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter (Rohineya, 

^ Theon Smyrnaeus, Liber de Astronomia, ed. Martin, Paris, 1S49, 8vo. 



THE JOVIAN CYCLE AND WORSHIP. 45 

Maghabha, Ashhadhabhava, and Purvaphalgunibhava) the four 
daughters of Soma (the Moon) and claim that their occultations 
were observed during a period of i6 months in B. C. 1424-6, at 
which time Saturn (Chyasuta) was not known to them as a planet. 
This is possible, but not probable. Brennand is of the opinion that 
Jupiter was known to the Hindu astronomer Parasara, who flourished 
about B. C. 1 181, but he does not appear to be willing to assign a 
higher date to this knowledge. Moreover, neither the observance 
of an occultation nor the knowledge that Jupiter was a planet be- 
speaks a knowledge of its period, which alone is what we are seek- 
ing. Finally, as Brennand justly remarks, the association of the 
planet with the name of the Buddhist "sage" Vrihaspati implies 
some connection between the planet and the Buddhist religion, 
which hfe evidently assumes is of a much later period than Parasara. 
But here he is mistaken, for the first Buddha is earlier than, or at all 
events as early as, the Hindu astronomer. However, if the connec- 
tion between Jupiter and Buddhism was the discovery or employ- 
ment of Jupiter's period, then all these apparent discrepancies may 
be reconciled by supposing that Jupiter was perhaps known to be a 
planet B. C. 1426, but that his period of 12 years was not determined 
until the sera of Parasara, B. C. 1181, and that it was then, or even 
at some more recent date, utilized by the Buddhists, who gave to the 
planet the revered title of Vrihaspati. Jupiter and his orbital period 
and the sexagesimal cycle are all mentioned in the Surya Siddhanta; 
but this proves nothing, because we do not know when that work 
was composed.* 

We have thus far followed the dates on this subject downward to 
B. C. 1 181; let us follow the remaining dates upward. Jupiter is 
said to be indicated as a planet upon the Chinese chart of the heav- 
ens which is ascribed to the year 600 B. C. and upon which 1460 
stars are accurately depicted. This chart is said to be in the Na- 
tional Library at Paris.* But this does not prove that the period of 
Jupiter was known. In the sexagesimal cycle of Jove, as it is em- 
ployed in India, China and Japan, each year of the 60 has a proper 

^ The Surya Siddhanta recognizes the planetary character of both Saturn and Jupi- 
ter and gives their orbital periods: it employs the sexagesimal cycle, and it reckons 
twelve months to the sidereal year. It is probably a work of the second Buddhic period. 
An English translation of the work by Rev. E. Burgess appears in the Journal of the 
Am. Orient Soc. i860. 

* Haydn, Die. Dates, art. "Planets." The number of stars in this chart is suspi- 
cious; it exactly corresponds with the number of years in the Sothic Cycle, q. v. 



46 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

name- According to Freret (XIII, 303-4) there is reason to believe 
that the Chinese names were bestowed by the astronomer Sze-ma- 
ts'ien, who flourished in the reign of Woote B. C. 86. This astron- 
omer drew up a table of sexagesimal cycles, to the years of which he 
affixed names which ran backward to B. C. 841. There does not ap- 
pear to be any reason why he should have stopped at that particular 
year unless it was the year when the orbit of Jove itself was deter- 
mined, or at least the knowledge of it was brought into China. At 
the same time it is to be remarked that even according, to Chinese 
accounts the sexagesimal cycle was invented in order to reconcile 
the old series of ten with the new series of 12 years and therefore 
that there is some reason to suspect that the sexagesimal Cycle is 
far less ancient than the Cycle of 12 years. 

Herodotus, Mel. 5, says that Targitaus the first King of the 
Scythians lived "just a thousand years " before Darius Hystaspes 
invaded their country. This fixes the sera of Targitaus in B. C. 
1495. Now Targitaus was reputed by his countrymen to have been 
a son of the god Jupiter, a belief which, could we be sure of the 
period when it was entertained, would carry the worship of Jupiter 
back to the 15th and near the i6th century B. C. But it would be 
venturesome to attach any date to the worship of Jupiter from this 
passage. All that can be said is that Herodotus, a writer of the 
fifth century B, C, evidently regarded the worship of Jupiter as very 
ancient. 

If the poems assigned to Orpheus, who is described as one of 
the Argonauts, and whose jera was therefore the 12th century B. C, 
could be regarded as belonging to this remote period, they would carry 
the Jovian cult and cycle back to his imputed aera ; but the known facts 
will hardly warrant such a conclusion. The doubts which some two 
thousand years ago were cast upon the genuineness of the Orphic 
lays have never been removed.^ 

Among the more positive evidences which we possess of the Jovian 
worship are those which appear in the works of Homer and Hesiod ; in- 
deed, so far as concerns the Occident, these poets may have framed 
the Jovian theogeny. "Whence each of the gods sprang, whether 
they existed always and of what form they were, was unknown, so 
to speak, until yesterday. For I am of opinion that Hesiod and 
Homer lived 7iot more than four hundred years before my time and 
these framed a theogony for the Greeks and gave names to the gods 

* Diodonis Sic, book L 



THE JOVIAN CYCLE AND WORSHIP. 47 

and assigned to them honors and arts and declared their several 
functions."* The birthplace of Homer is undetermined: but it is 
generally agreed that he was an Asiatic Greek. His sera is uncer- 
tain. Frederick Augustus Wolf, in his celebrated " Prologemena 
ad Homerum " 1795, says that "the voice of antiquity is unani- 
mous in declaring that Pisistratus first committed the poems of Ho- 
mer to writing and reduced them to the order in which we now 
read them." Charles Lachmann, 1837-41, showed that the Homeric 
poems consisted of no less than 16 different lays brought together 
by Pisistratus, who enlarged and interpolated them B. C. 561. 
Xenophanes, who flourished B. C. 540-500, the earliest writer who 
mentions Homer, complains of the false notions which the poet 
taught, an expression which rather conveys the implication that in 
his time, and at least in Greece, such notions were new, or at all 
events were not old enough to have obtained popular assent, much 
less that official sanction and endorsement, which, probably at a 
later period, required them to be read aloud at the Panathenaic 
festival. Herodotus, our principal witness, says that Homer lived 
" not more than " 400 years before his time, which was about B. C. 
450. This expression assigns Homer to any date not 7nore than 400 
years before the time of Herodotus; while the expression "yester- 
day " leaves it to be inferred that such date was not very distant. 
We are informed by Cicero, Pausanias and Diogenes Laertius'' that 
the works of Homer were revised and edited by Pisistratus, the deified 
King of Athens, who reigned something less than 200 years before 
Herodotus wrote. So far as we know, this period, say about B. C. 
600, marked the earliest publication of the Homeric poems and the 
Jovian theogony in Attica. Indeed the oldest inscriptions which 
survive of the Greek language do not ascend beyond the middle 
of the seventh century. These are the marbles of Thera, Melos and 
Crete about B. C. 620, and the Ionian slab of Psammeticus in Upper 
Egypt, which is of nearly the same age. 

Another straw which points the same way is the fact that the Ro- 
mans associated their earliest legends — those which relate to the 
Foundation of the City — not with Jove, but with the god whom the 
Greeks regarded as his predecessor, Saturn. ' It was Saturn and not 

® Euterpe, 53. ' Cicero, Orat., Ill, 34; Pausanias, VII; Diogenes Lsertius, I, 57, 

^ According to Brennand, 54, Jupiter was known to the Indians before Saturn • 

while in the Greek states, at all events in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, Saturn 

was known as a planet and worshipped before Jupiter. If it could be assumed that 

both of these opinions were correct, this would narrow the field of our researches. 



48 A NEW CHRONOLOGY 

Jove who visited Janus in those great galleys whose rostra became 
the emblems of the Eternal City. Had Jove been worshipped, or 
even known to the Romans when these legends were invented, it 
seems more likely that he would have been the Supreme of the 
Janus legend, rather than Saturn. The legend therefore indicates 
that at the period of the Foundation, say B. C. 8i6, the Romans, 
or the Albans, worshipped Saturn and not Jove, as the Supreme 
God. 

The period beyond which, according to these views, there is no 
warrant for carrying the antiquity of the Homeric theogony, namely 
about B. C. 600, marks the conquest or colonization of the Crimea 
by Greeks, and the establishment of Greek trading-posts and empo- 
ria close to those of the lezyges, who with them conducted the 
overland trade from the Volga to the frontiers of India. 

There is a passage in Herodotus which by implication carries the 
Jovian worship back to the ninth or tenth century before our sera, 
not indeed in Attica, but in Sparta. " Lycurgus, a man much es- 
teemed by the Spartans, having arrived at Delphi to consult the 
oracle, no sooner entered the temple than the Pythian spoke as fol- 
lows: 'Thou art come, Lycurgus, to our famous temple, beloved by 
Jove and all (the gods) that inhabit Olympian mansions. I doubt 
whether I should pronounce thee god or man; but rather god, I 
think, Lycurgus.' "^ Tradition assigns Lycurgus to the sera of Troja 
Capta; Herodotus implies that he lived in the tenth century B. C. ; 
Thucydides and Cicero, our best authorities, fix him in the ninth 
(B. C. 884) ; Aristotle alludes to his legislation as ancient, but fixes 
no date; Thirl wall and Grote regard him as a real personage of the 
ninth century. Assuming the story in Herodotus to be authentic 
it carries the worship of Jove in Sparta back to the tenth century 
before our sera. 

The pentaeteris were originally not Greek, but Oriental festivals. 
They are mentioned in the Vedas (Brennand, 159; Colebrooke I, 106) 
and were brought into Greece by the Veneti, who were worshippers of 
IesChrishna,or as Grecianized, Ischenus. The festivals were called 
Ischenia. The period of their importation was probably near the 
close of the 13th century before our sera. They celebrated the 
equable year among the lesyges, the Veneti, the Phoenecians, Pelas- 
gii, and other kindred peoples; but not among the Greeks, who so 
far as v^^e are aware, had no knowledge of the equable year until after 

9 Clio, 65. 



THE JOVIAN CYCLE AND WORSHIP. 49 

their colozination or conquest of the Crimea in the seventh century? 
B. C.^° Indeed, they themselves explicitly ascribed the discovery 
of the equable year to Thales, a Phoenecian Greek of Miletus. Un- 
til the Greeks employed the equable year, they certainly did not 
celebrate it with the pentaeteris. The previous celebrations must 
have been those of the Eleans and Pisans before their cities were 
taken by the Greeks. In short, there seems to have elapsed a period 
of several centuries between the introduction of Jovian worship and 
the observance of the pentaeteric festival by the Greeks. 

Pococke, 258-262, believed that the worship of Carnos (or Cronos) 
was the earliest form of religion which was brought into Greece 
from the Orient and that this was followed by the " establishment of 
the Jania sect, by the Jania pontiff of Thessaly," whose title was 
" Jeyus or Zeus" and his residence Oo'Lampos, or Olympus. Ac- 
cording to this author, the worshippers both of the Greek Zeus- 
pater and the Roman Jupiter took the name of their god and his 
fane from the Jania religion of India. If this opinion were sup- 
ported by satisfactory evidences, in place of those adduced by 
this somewhat venturesome author, both the discovery, the name and 
the worship of Jupiter in Greece might be carried backward with 
confidence to the sera of les Chrishna, or the first Buddha; but we 
are not as yet prepared to follow Mr. Pococke thus far. 

From these various considerations the determination of the Jovian 
cycle is narrowed down to some period near the geras of les Chrishna 
in India," leschenus in Pisa, and Lycurgus in Sparta. 

To sum up : The remotest admissible sera of the discovery of the 
planetary character and cycle of Jupiter in the Orient is the 15th 
century, whilst among the Greeks (this does not include the Eleans 
or Pisans) no plausible evidences of it have been found earlier than 
the tenth century. ^^ A reasonable date for its discovery in India is 
a mean between these two dates, say the 12th century B. C. With- 

*" Our Thors-day and the Roman Dies-Jovis answers to the Vrishpat-var of the Hin- 
dus, as written in the code of Manou. Dyaus-pater, Vrishpati, Brihaspati, Zeuspater 
and Jupiter are all variations of the same name and mean the same thing. See Chap. 
VIII for Vrishpat. 

" A 30 year cycle (exactly one-half of the Jovian sexagenary) belongs to the religion 
of les Chrishna. See " Story of the Gods," IV, 4. 

'^ While the author sees no reason at present to alter this conclusion, he neverthe- 
less believes that some weight should be accorded to the fact that the Romans associ- 
ated one of their earliest legends, that of Janus, or "Father J asius " (Virgil), with 
Saturn and not with Jove. This would imply that the Jovian worship was unknown, 
to them or their ancestors at the period assigned to Janus or Jasius. 



50 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

out venturing to suggest that the discovery of Jupiter's planetary 
character or period had any direct connection with the overthrow 
of the original Brahminical system, it will scarcely be denied that the 
assistance which it was capable of affording to a rival astrology 
would not be without its influence in strengthening that more popu- 
lar worship which sprang up after the close of the Mahabharata wars 
and which afterwards in India took its name from les Chrishna, or 
the first Buddha and in the West from that of Ischenou, Hermes, 
Bacchus, or Dionysius. 



51 



CHAPTER VI. 

VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. 

THE following table shows the years of the incarnation of the 
Deity according to the Brahminical religion, all of the years 
being cast into the conventional or familiar Christian aera. The dates 
are those of the last year of the avatars as numbered : 



TABLE A. BRAHMINICAL DIVINE YEARS. 



M-i 


B. C. 


S§)§ 
3 S; 

B. C. 


g bO 

B. C. 


■■2 "si 


Ph C bo 

gp 

.S 3 2 

B. C. 


B. C. 


s"5 




B. C. 


I 


7128 


7050 


7065 


IX 


1 864 


1786 


1801 


II 


6470 


6392 


6417 


X 


1206 


1128 


1143 


III 


5812 


5734 


5749 


— 


548 


470 


485 


IV 


5154 


5076 


5091 




A.D. 


A.D. 


A.D. 


V 


4496 


4418 


4433 


— 


109 


187 


172 


VI 


3838 


3760 


3775 


— 


767 


845 


830 


VII 


3180 


S102 


3117 


— 


1425 


1503 


1488 


VIII 


2522 


2444 


2459 











* The ten avatars of lesnu, or Vishnu, or the names of the ten different forms under which he 
appeared or was to appear to mankind, were as follows : I, lesnu, or Vishnu, the Matsya ; II, Courma, 
or Kurm; III, Varaguin, or Varaba ; IV, Nara-Sima, or Nara-sing ; V, Vamen, or Vamuna ; VI, Rama^O r' 
Krakuchouda; VII, Bala-patren, or Karaka-muni ; VIII, Parasurama, or Kasyapa ; IX, Chrishna, or 
Saca-muni ; X, Kalpi, or Maittreya. The interval between them was always the same, namely, one 
ecliptical cycle ; but the names and periods pertaining to each one do not appear to have remained 
unchanged. 

This table is constructed upon the following hypotheses: i, That 
theCalijoga (B. C. 3102) is the conventional date of a Brahminical 
incarnation, a date which has been long accepted throughout the 
Orient; 2, That the Brahminical incarnations were 658 years apart; 3, 
That the Augustan dates are 78 years later than the Indian; and 4, 
That the Christian dates are 15 years earlier than the Augustan. 

The following table shows the years of the incarnations of the 
Deity according to the Brahma-Buddhic or Hindu religion, all of the 
dates being cast into the conventional or familiar Christian aera: 



52 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 



TABLE B. BRAHMA- 


BUDDHIC DIVINE YEARS OR 


INCARNATION 


CYCLES. 


Indian, or Pre-Augustan Years. 


Roman, or Augustan Years. 


Post- Justinian or 
Buddha's 


Christian Years. 


Buddha's Buddha's 


Buddha's Buddha's 


Buddha's 


birth. death. 


birth. death. 


birth. 


death. 


B. C. B. C. 


B. C. B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


6658 6578 


6580 6500 


6595 


6515 


6000 5920 


5922 5842 


5937 


5857 


5342 5262 


S264 5184 


5279 


5199 


4684 4604 


4606 4526 


4621 


4541 


4026 3946 


3448 3868 


3963 


3883 


3368 32S8 


3290 3210 


3305 


3225 


2710 2630 


2632 2552 


2647 


2567 


2052 1972 


1974 1894 


1989 


1909 


1394 1314 


1316 1236 


1331 


3251 


736 656 


658 578 


673 


593 


B.C. A.D. 


A.D. A.D. 


B.C. 


A.D. 


78 I 


79 


15 


64 


A.D. A.D. 


A.D. A.D. 


A.D. 


A.D. 


579 659 


65S 737 


642 


722 


1237 1317 


1316 1395 


1300 


I':(So 


1895 1975 


1974 2053 


1958 


203S 



This table is constructed upon the following hypotheses: i, That 
previous to the Augustan age the Indian date of the nirvana of 
Buddha was equivalent to the Christian B. C, 656; 2, That the 
alteration of the Calendar by Augustus removed this date to B. C. 
578; and 3, That the Calendar was subsequently, probably about the 
nth century, altered by the Latin Sacred College to the extent of 
15 years, thus casting the nirvana of Buddha into B. C. 593; 
4, That his nirvana occurred in his 80th year; 5, That the 
various nirvanas of Buddha are 658 years apart. A difference of 
one year is sometimes to be observed in ancient dates which is due 
to the common practice of omitting A. D. o. in calculating their 
Christian equivalents, and sometimes to a change in the new-year 
day. 

It will be observed that between the dates in Tables A and B there 
is a difference of 108 years. For example, in Table A the Augustan 
year of the tenth avatar of lesnu is B. C. 11 28, while in Table B the 
nirvana of Buddha is fixed by the Augustan chronology in B. C. 
1236; the difference being 108 years. In other words, the Brahma- 
Buddhic incarnation dates are 108 years earlier than the Brahminical. 
This discrepancy is, continued throughout all the divine years. Its 
effect is to bring one of the divine years — that of the re-birth of 
les Chrishna, Quichena, Buddha, Dionysius or Salivahana (for they 
were all one) to the Christian B. C. 15, or the Augustan A. D. o, , 
the year of the Apotheosis of Augustus, and third closure (during his 
reign) of the temple of Janus. If we turn back to chapter III, it 
will be observed that the difference between the epoch of the quin- 



VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. 53 

quennial olympiads B. C. 884 and that of the quadrennial olympiads 
B. C. 776 is precisely the same — 108 years. This coincidence when 
strengthened with other evidences enables us to detect the author 
and the motive for sinking 108 years from the Brahminical chronology, 
or in other words, for adding 108 years to the Buddhic. The author 
was evidently Augustus and the motive was to prove by the calendar 
that he himself was that self same les Chrishna,Quichena, or Quirinus, 
whose re-incarnation had been predicted and who was expected to 
appear to mankind both in the Orient and the West. It is quite 
possible that the olympiads were altered from quinquennial to quad- 
rennial intervals by Julius Caesar — indeed the sera of Iphitus given by 
Cicero rather indicates this — but as stated in chapter III the altera- 
tion appears to have been completed by Augustus. 

TABLE c. 
Occidental Divine Years employed in Chaldea (Babylon), Assyria, 
Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Gotland, Etruria and Rome — 658 
years apart. 

B. C. 

2064. Bel-Esus; Chres; Cres; Deluge of Ogyges; Anno Mundi 
Eusebiano (?) 

1406. Nin-Ies; Jasius; Eric-theus; Eleusinian Mysteries; Ousurt- 
Esen; Marina. 
748. Tiglath Pil-Esar; Nebo-Nazaru; Osiris; Adonis; Pheidon; 
Messenia's "Third Age"; Tat; Janus Quirinus, or Romu- 
lus; Numa Pompilius. 
90. Woden, or Wotan ; Minius leus ; Etrurian doomsday ; Kab ben 
Luayy; Sylla; Quintus Sertorius. 

A. D. 
567. les Chrishna (re-appearance); Meshdak; Mahomet (birth). 

1225, Divine years now became obsolete in the West; though they 
continued to be observed in the Orient. At Rome the 
second coming of Jesus Christ was expected down to the 
year 1260, q. v., after which date this expectation, so far 
as the ecclesiastical authorities are concerned, seems to 
have been abandoned. 

It will be observed that between the Indian incarnation dates of 
Buddha's nativity in Table B and the Occidental incarnation dates 
in Table C there is a discrepancy of twelve years. The origin and 
period of this dislocation have not been satisfactorily settled, but 
it seems likely to have been established before the Augustan sera. 



54 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

TABLE D, 

Buddhic, Bacchic, or Dionysian Divine Years, in cycles of 552 
years reckoned backward and forward from Salivahana. 



Indian. 


Christian. 


Augustan. 


Indian. 


Christian. 


Augustan, 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


7254 


7239 


7176 


2286 


2271 


2208 


6702 


6687 


6624 


1734 


1719 


1656 


6150 


6135 


6072 


*Il82 


*ii67 


*iio4 


5598 


5583 


5520 


630 


615 


552 


5046 


5031 


4968 


t78 


t 63 


to 


4494 


4479 


4416 


A.D. 


A.D. 


A.D. 


3942 


3927 


3864 


473 


488 


551 


3390 


3375 


3312 


1025 


1040 


1 103 


2838 


2823 


2760 


1577 


1592 


1655 



* Reputed sera of the Indian Bacchus who conquered the West. This is evidently the same god or 
hero that was worshipped by the Jains. See next chapter, year B. C. 1219. 
+ Variant seras of Salivahana, the re-incarnation of les Chrishna. 

TABLE DD. 

Buddhic, Bacchic, or Dionysian Divine Years, in cycles of 532 
years, reckoned backward and forward from Salivahana. 



Indian. 


Christian. 


Augustan. 


Indian. 


Christian. 


Augustan, 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


6994 


6979 


6916 


2206 


2191 


2128 


6462 


6447 


6384 


1674 


1659 


1596 


5930 


5915 


5852 


*II42 


*II27 


*io64 


5398 


5383 


5320 


610 


595 


532 


4866 


4851 


4788 


t78 


t63 


to 


4334 


4319 


4256 


A.D. 


A.D. 


A.D. 


3802 


3787 


3724 


453 


468 


531 


3270 


3255 


3192 


985 


1000 


1063 


2738 


2723 


2660 


1517 


1532 


1585 


* Reputed 


Eera of the Lidian Bacchus who conqi 


lered the West. 


t Salivahana. 





Table DDD would be similar to Table DD, only instead of counting backward 
and forward from A. D. o. the cycles would count from B. C. 8, which was 
the year of the apotheosis of Augustus in Egypt. A table of this character was 
evidently used in constructing the paschal periods of Hippolytus, a writer attributed 
to the third century, also by Dionysius Exiguus, who is assigned to the sixth century. 
See Chapter VIII, under " 532 years," where this series of Dionysian divine years is 
again mentioned. 

TABLE E. 

Brahma-Buddhic lokkals, 2700 years apart, according to various 
authorities. 







Sewell and 


Varaha-Mihira. 


Gen. Cunningham. 


Duff Rickmers. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


B. C. 


6077 


6777 


5777 


3377 


4077 


3077 


677 


1377 


377 



If we consider the hundreds of seras which have been or are still 
being used to mark the flight of time, they will be observed to 
arrange themselves into groups or constellations, of which the prin- 



VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. 55 

cipal ones relate to either les, or Brahma, or Buddha. For example, 
it will scarcely be doubted that of the numerous geras shown in the 
next Table, F, ranging from B. C. 771 to B. C. 527, the majority, 
indeed perhaps all, of them relate one way or another to the second 
Buddha; and that they cluster around the last quarter of the 7th 
century B. C. as a common centre. It may fairly be deduced from 
Arrian and Diodorus that at this period the Indian states enjoyed 
one of their few intervals of freedom. These authors, following 
Megasthenes, accord to the ancient Indians three periods of political 
liberty, one each of 200 (?), 300 and 120 years; but they do not 
mention the dates at which such periods of liberty prevailed. We 
may reasonably assume that the two last periods followed respectively 
the establishment and restoration of the Buddhic religion; but there 
is no guide to the occurrence of the first. Some other aspects of 
this subject are dealt with further on in the text. Baron Bunsen's 
treatment of the matter is based on the assumption that Syrian 
mythology and historical fact are one and the same thing ; an extrav- 
agance by no means confined to that eminent author. 

Ascending from the 7th century B. C. and guided, through what 
otherwise were absolute darkness, by the light of the Divine Year, 
we are enabled to perceive that in like manner the various seras 
which centre in the 13th century B. C. relate to the first Buddha. 
See Table G. 

On the other hand, there are numerous geras pertaining to gods, 
hiercharchs and tyrants, which evidently do not belong to Buddhic 
clusters, but to some other chronological constellations. For exam- 
ple, in the nth century. Table J, we find a cluster of so-called 
Indian " Buddhas " who taught not the principles of political liberty, 
but those of a penal code. The divinities of this cluster are evi- 
dently related to one another, but not to the Buddhic gods. They 
are Brahminical. They commemorate no period or impersonation 
of liberty. They mark the triumph of hierarchical tyranny and its 
concomitants: feudalism, caste, slavery, mysticism, priestcraft and 
superstition. We shall consider this and its cognate clusters of seras 
in their proper place and endeavor to point out their relation 
to the Brahamical messianic theory and the influence of the 
latter upon the creation of new myths. Meanwhile let us deal 
with the Buddhic constellations. The following dates are found 
upon coins or epigraphic monuments, or in literary works, or else 
are deduced therefrom, as set forth in Chapter VII : 



56 



A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 



TABLE F. 

-^ras of the Second Buddha, B. C. 771-527. 



Messenic Eera (by the 
5 yr. Olympiads). 

Tat, or Tatius, 

Romulus, Quirinus, 
or Quichena, 

Tiglath, Pil Esar, 

Messenic aera(see 685) 

Nebo-Nazaru, 

Phoroneus, 

Adonis, 

Chinese aera, 

Numa Pompilius, 

Salivahana (les Chrish- 
na) 

les Chrishna, birth, 

Buddha, birth, 

Sargonll (lesargon?) 

Jimmu, birth, 

Cyaxares (see 632) 

Zoroaster, 

Giemschid, 

Eetzana, Burma, 

lesyges, Tarentum, 

Thoth, Egypt, 

Burma, Sacred sera, 



B.C. 

Thammuz, 
771 Numa, death, 
769 Lao-tsze, China, 

Buddha, nirvana, 
753 Jimmu, regnal year, 
748 lesnara, Scythia, 

Buddha, Crimea, 

747 Buddha, nativity, 
747 Chinese sera, 
747 Buddha, nirvana, 
742 Chrestonian aera, 
738 Nana-Sabesia, 

Mithra, 
736 lanus Quirinus, 



B.C. 

673 Buddha, birth, 

672 Solon, 

667 Panionic Cycle, 

662 Zoroaster, birth, 

660 Mad-ies, Khazaria, 

658 Thammuz, 

658 Servius Tullius, 

658 Jain Mahavira, 

657 Gotama, nirvana, 

656 Buddha, birth, 

656 Buddha, nirvana, 

645 Buddha, Burma, nir. 

645 Armenian sera, 

644 Confucius, 



724 les Chrishna, ascension, 644 Perseus, 
721 Thammuz, nirvana, 641 ^sculapius, 
717 Solon, birth, 639 Jain Mahavira, 

712 Buddha, Pegu, 638 Buddha, Siam, nir. 

710 Buddha, China, 638 Buddha, Ceylon, nir. 

710 Eetzana sera of Buddha, 633 Buddha, Ava, 



632 Buddha, Burma, nir. 

630 Swetambara Vira, 

629 Cyrus, deified, 

619 Pythagoras, advent, 

612 Pisistratus, deified, 

610 Mahavira, nirvana, 
604 



B.C. 

598 
592 
592 
590 
584 
582 
578 
569 
567 
557 
554 
552 
552 
551 
548 
548 
545 
544 
543 
543 
533 
533 
533 
533 
527 
527 



703 Cyaxares, 

701 Zoroaster, death, 

694 Jain Mahavira, 

692 Buddha, Ceylon, b, 

690 Servius Tullius, 

Messenic £era(Third age) 685 Adrastus, 

Fod, or Budda, birth, 677 Lao-tsze, China, 

It is regarded as quite possible that were the sources of these 
various seras closely examined they could nearly all be resolved into 
one; in other words, that the difference in years between most of 
them could be accounted for by the various changes which have been 
made in the calendar. Many of them relate to ideal personages 
whose mythology is Duilt upon the oft-repeated incarnations of lesnu, 
or Vishnu, while others are those of historical characters who sought 
to exalt their power by connecting themselves with the same wide- 
spread myth. 

TABLE G. 

^Eras of the First Buddha 



Buddha-Brahma, 
Nin-Ies, or Ninus, 
Ousurt-Esen, 
Jasius, Crete, 
Eleusinian tera, 
Greek, Buddha (Eric- 

theus, 
Buddha-Brahma, 
Marina, Scythia, 
Buddha-Brahma, 
les Chrishna, 
Bel Issus, 
Buddha-Brahma, 
Thoth, les-iris, or 

Osiris 
Pan (Eric-theus), 



B.C. 

1406 Buddha, 
1406 Troja Capta, 
1406 les Chrishna, 
1406 Buddha-Brahma, 
1406 Maryamma, 

les Chrishna, 
1406 Pelasgian a;ra, 
1394 Thoth, or Mercury, 
1394 les Chrishna, 
1391 Kwar Ismian sera, 
1391 Yao, China, 
1390 lanus, 
1366 Durga, 

les Chrishna, 
1350 Bacchus (Morea) 
1346 Troja Capta, 



B. C. 1406-1193. 

B.C. B.C. 

1336 Perseus, 1291 

1334 Bacchus, Aretes, 1290 

1332 Troja Capta, 1290 

1332 Pan, of Arcadia, 1260 

1332 Pan, of Ionia, 1252 

1332 Pan, of Ionia, 1248 

1331 les Chrishna, 1248 

1322 Troja Capta, 124S 

1315 Theseus, 1235 

1312 Jason, Venetia, 1225 

1311 les Chrishna, 1219 

1306 Ischenou, Elis, 1219 

1306 Thammuz, Egypt, 1200 

1300 Pelasgian sera, 1200 

1300 Parasurama, 1193 

1292 Inachus, 1193 



VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. 57 

The evidences of a Buddhic or Bacchic religion, during and shortly 
after the Mahabharata wars, both in India and the Western countries, 
which, at this period, were doubtlessly largely peopled by refugees 
from India, are so numerous and convincing, that it would be rash 
to regard all these seras and personages as fabulous; although such 
is probably the case with most of them. That the Mahabharata wars 
left in India a popular leader or leaders who inculcated the principles 
of liberty, and the right to carry arms, will scarcely be doubted, 
especially by persons familiar with the customs and traditions of the 
Sikhs, the Bheels and other very ancient races, which still survive in 
their native country. All these are warrior races, and some of them 
make a nractice never to go unarmed. While accepting the peaceful 
tenets and social aspirations of Buddhism, they evidently believe 
that liberty is not to be preserved through the unaided medium of 
faith ; but that it needs also the bulwark of courage and the defense 
of arms. That these principles of liberty were carried into the 
Occident and furnished a foundation for the free states of Scythia, 
Asia-Minor and Greece, has been maintained with no little ability by 
Buchanan, Jameison, Pococke and others. Whether the name of 
the Oriental hero was Chrishna, Buddha, Pan, Mercury or Janus, is 
of no practical consequence. The principles represented by his 
name and the periods when and where they were promulgated, dif- 
fused and adopted, are alone important. In this sense the first 
Buddha must be regarded as much an historical personage as the 
second or the third Buddha. He certainly existed in men's minds, 
and for present purposes that is enough. Diodorus Siculus says that 
some of the Greek writers denied the reality of Bacchus, while 
others contended that there were three of this name, or one who re- 
visited the earth at intervals; that the first one was born at Nissa, in 
India, and having been deceived by Lycurgus king of Thrace, he 
marched into that country and executed the treacherous monarch by 
nailing him to a cross.* 

Among the modern writers on Indian antiquities who have asserted 
or assumed the existence of a First Buddha and the practice of a 
Buddhic religion in India during the period above indicated are 
Jones, Prinseps, Marsden, Wilson, Tod, Pococke and Colebrooke. 
The last one especially has some strong passages on the subject. 

Beside the opinions of these writers there are the well known 
evidences afforded by the Buddhic or Brahma-Buddhic monuments of 

*Dio. Sic. ed. 1700, pp. 116-19. 



58 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

India, many of which are evidently much more ancient than the Second 
Buddha, and the fact that the Phoenicians who appeared in the 
Levant long before the period of the Second Buddha carried Buddhic 
images upon the prows of their galleys. The worship of Thammuz 
(Buddha) in Syria may not have been earlier than the Second Buddha, 
but that of Thot (Taat, or Buddha) in Egypt was certainly as ancient 
or nearly as ancient as the period of the First Buddha. 

TABLE H. 

^ras of the Third Buddha, .B C. 90, A. D. 65, 

B.C. B.C. B.C- 

Woden, 90 Deiotaurus, 53 Pontine cera, 2 

Minius leus, 90 ^ra of Antioch, 49 Diviatiacus, Gaul, 57 

Doomsday; Etruria, 88 Julius Cresar, apotheosis, 48 Salivahana, 2 

Woote, 86 ^ras of Tyre, Antioch, Apollonius of Tyana, I 

Sylla, 84 Pontus.Thessaly, etc., 48 Buddha, Table B, o 

Pontine rera, 82 JEra of Rhodes, 42 A.D. 

Salivahana, 78 Sextus Pompeius, 41 Buddha, Table B, i 

Ptolemy, as Dionysius, 78 Herod, deified, 40 Chinzapagua, i 

ALva. of Mecca, 78 Augustus, advent, 40 Augustus, Egypt, 8 

Quintus Sertorius, 78 Leucadian cera, 36 Ab5'ssinian osra, 8 

^ra of Sinope, 70 Marc Antony, 36 Augustus, ascension, 14 

^ra of Antioch, 64 ^ra of Pontus, 36 ALraoi Comana, 35 

Augustus, conception, 64 Issus, son of Mariam, 25 Cingalese sera, 40 

Salivahana, 63 Buddha, Table B, 15 Moorish ;^ra, 40 

Augustus, nativity, 63 Augustus, apot/ieosis, 15 Pontine sera, 64 

Pompey, apotheosis, 63 Augustus, Egypt, 8 Fod, China, 65 

Samvat Vicramaditya, 57 Pontine aera, 7 Indian Vrihaspati, 65 

Many of these seras relate to historical personages, who, aware of 
the recurrences of the oriental Divine Year, sought to impose them- 
selves upon the world as the predicted and expected king of kings. 
Woote was an actual emperor of China who assumed the Mongol 
and Scythic name of the Messiah. Minius leus, Sylla. Sertorius, 
Pompey, Diviatiacus, Deiotaurus, Julius Csesar, Sextus Pompey, Marc 
Antony, Augustus and Apollonius are well known to history. 

We now turn backward to what, for the sake of avoiding confusion, 
we have ventured to term Brahminical aeras, though so far as concerns 
many of the personages or names of personages connected with them, 
they are in fact not Brahminical, but Brahma-Buddhic. 

TABLE. I. 

Brahminical jeras, ninth avatar, B. C. 1897-1650. 

B.C. B.C. B.C. 

Isaac, or lesac, 1897 Phoenix aera, 1847 Cycle of Yao, 1650 

Inachus, 1S69 les Chrishna, 1786 

lesnu, ninth avatar, 1864 Mahabharatawars, 1650 

The last incarnation of Vishnu, or les-nu, appears to have been 

expected previous to the Mahabharata wars, when the destruction of 

the world was to take place. It is not improbable that the failure of 



VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. 59 

this event had something to do with the revolt from Brahminism 
which characterized those wars and the reconstruction — after an 
Interregnum — of the ancient astrological system, into the later 
Brahma-Buddhic form which it still bears. There are no other traces 
of the earlier Brahminical seras now extant, though as we shall pres- 
ently see, there are numerous marks of a later series. 

TABLE J. 

Brahminical seras, tenth avatar, B. C. 1 300-1000. 

B.C. B.C. B.C. 

les Chrishna, 1300 Ischenou, 1219 Bacchus, ii44 

Rites of "Bacchus," 1300 Theseus, death, 1206 Brahma, end of lothav. 1 128 

Troja Capta, 1292 Rhampsinitus, 1200 Chaldean aera, 1106 

Perseus, 1291 Parasurama, 1193 Josh, or Joss, 1104 

Inachus, 1290 Inachus, 1183 First Zoroaster, 1076 

Lykcea, 1260 Parasurama, 1182 les Chrishna, 1036 

Troja Capta, 1258 les Cnrishna, 1178 Fod, son of Mai, 1036 

Ionian sera, 1252 Parasurama, Ii77 Fod, Brahma-Buddha, 1027 

Ionian sera, 1248 Jovian orbit det'd, 11 76 First Buddha (a 

Troja Capta, 1248 Parasurama, 1176 Brahma-Buddha), 1207 

Theseus, 1235 Inachus, 1171 Buddso (Brahm-Bud), 1000 

Jason, 1225 les Chrishna, 11 56 Code of Manu, circ. 1000 

les Chrishna, 12 19 

These dates are Brahminical ; the names, with few exceptions, are 

Buddhic; the combination is Brahma-Buddhic. 

TABLE K. 

Brahminical seras, nth avatar, B. C. 590-388. 

B.C. B.C. B.C. 

Zoroaster II., 590 Darius, 521 Druid Cycles, 470 

Mad-Ies, 584 Gebel-Eisis, (Hesus) 495 Hesus, 470 

Servius Tullius, 578 Hesus, Spain and Gaul, 480 Phoenician aera, 389 

Cyrus, 533 Chrysis, 479 Zoroaster II., 389 
Pisistratus, 527 Roman lustra adopted, 472 

In this series appear the names of several historical personages, 
who, being aware that a Divine Year was about to commence, or had 
just passed, assumed to be that predicted Son of God, who was ex- 
pected to regenerate mankind and inaugurate a reign of universal 
peace and happiness. 

TABLE L. 

Brahminical seras, 12th avatar, A. D. 121-271. 

A.D. A.D. A.D. 

Attic-Hadrianic sera, 121 Gupta, 167 Caracalla, 211 

Osiris, 136 Commodus, 188 Elagabalus, 220 

Barco-cheba, 136 Manes, 195 Sassanian sera., 223 

Antonius Pius 138 Ardisher (shah-in-shah), 205 Kalachuri Samvat, 250 

Gupta, 166 Gupta, 206 Manes, ascension, 271 

It may be asked what warrant there is for regarding certain of 
these seras as Brahminical, or Brahma-Buddhic, or as having anything 
to do with the theogonies of India. The answer is that the heroes 
of these aeras all impiously proclaimed themselves in Rome as the 



6o A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Son of God, or the Messiah; that they evidently did so on or about 
the occurrence of a Brahminical divine year; that the Messiah was 
only expected, whether in the East or West, upon the occurrence of 
a divine year; that they were all founders of new forms of religion, 
and that they were all of them, as well Pompey, Julius and Augustus 
before them, familiar with the Oriental theogony and the influence 
it possessed both in the East and West, to command the obedience, 
not merely of the superstitious multitude, but also of vassal kings, 
pro-consuls, tetrarchs, and distant officials, as well as to ensure rich 
offerings and endowments to the temples in all parts of the empire. 
The £eras of Osiris, Barco-cheba and Manes are sufficient to estab- 
lish the recurrence, rehabilitation and renewed observance of the 
Brahminical divine year down to near the middle of the third century 
of our asra, for it should be remembered that these Messiahs were 
worshipped by vast multitudes in Persia, Syria, Egypt, and also the 
the Western provinces of the empire. This induction derives addi- 
tional support from the recrudesence of the Brahminical divine year 
and its accompanying Manifestation in the ninth century of our sera, 
as shown in the following table: 

TABLE LL. 

Brahminical seras, 13th avatar, A. D. 722-971. 

A.D. A.D. A.D. 

Quetzalcoatl, 722 Brahma, 846 Mansur, the Almighty, 922 

Aera of the Papacy, 752 Aera of Tartary, 846 Ibu-Abi-Zakarriyya, 937 

Aera of Jesus Christ Nepal rcra, 870 Abd-el-Raman III.,pre- 

first used, 781 Khri-l-de-8srong, 8S0 tended son of Mar)', 936 

Amogavarsha, 800 Nepal rera, 8S0 Peruvian Manifestation, 937 

Sergius, 800 Salivahana, Sgo Kalachakra sera, 965 

Charlemagne, 800 Obeidallah, the Messiah, 909 Seljuk, son of Alanka- 

Parasurama, 825 Al Hallaj, 914 van,the Virgin Mother 971 

It will scarcely be denied that these various clusters of earthly 
divinities and ^ras, centering as they do on or about the periods of 
the Brahminical divine years shown in Table A, evince a remarkable 
persistence in the messianic belief, and that this belief had much to 
do with the progress of religion and the history of states. 

If our historical knowledge were sufficiently extensiveand accurate, 
it would probably appear that many of the ideal Messiahs were 
based upon actual pretenders who arose previous to the date assigned 
to them and from whose worship that of the ideal Messiah was a re- 
action or protest. In such case the jera of the Ideal was invented 
at a later period and had to be thrown backward some centuries 
before the period of his invention, in order to invest him with the 
attributes of divinity, surround him with superstitious mystery, and 



VARIOUS YEARS OF THE INCARNATION. t.1 

thus procure for him the veneration due to antiquity. For example, 
in the history of Assyria, Tiglath-pil-Esar was an actual personage 
who pretended to be a Messiah and who demanded to be worshipped 
as such. The same impious demand was made by his royal suc- 
cessors, until a time came when their evil and tyrannical lives 
rendered this demand so odious and intolerable, that it was resisted 
even by the degraded multitude. This then was the moment for 
organized revolt; but revolt, without an Ideal, a perfect Messiah, to 
take the place of the real but imperfect one, would in such a country 
and under such circumstances, have necessarily proved abortive. 
An ideal had, therefore, to be invented; and, in fact, he was in- 
vented and called Nebo-Nazaru, Nebo being the equivalent of 
Bacchus, Mercury, or Liber Pater, the god of freedom ; and Nazaru 
possibly the pretended place of his miraculous advent. To complete 
the imposture, he had to be thrown backward in time. As Herodotus, 
who wrote B. C. 445, says nothing about him, he probably was not 
invented until after the immortal Greek composed his history. Let 
us say that he was invented about B. C. 400. The sera of the pre- 
tended Nebo-Nazaru was fixed in B. C. 747, the same as that of the 
real Tiglath-pil-Esar; he was, therefore, thrown back in time, or 
antedated, about 350 years. The divine attributes and mystery 
with which this degree of antiquity enabled the Ideal Messiah to be 
surrounded, might have rendered his name the battle cry of a holy 
war, and summoned millions in arms to sweep away the detested 
tyranny that had called the new Saviour into existence. 

Such was probably the case not only with Nebo-Nazaru but also 
with many other of the Ideal incarnations of the past; but which 
were the real and which the ideal Messiahs, is a matter that cannot 
at present be determined upon grounds that would be likely to meet 
with general acceptance. 



62 



CHAPTER VII. 

^RAS. 

IN the following collection of ^ras (Table M) all the dates have 
been couched in the Vulgar ^ra beginning January ist, A. D. i. 
This date coincides with the year 4004 of the World, according to 
Bishop Usher; 3760 of the modern Jewish Anno-Mundi; 3102 of the 
Brahminical Calijoga; 884 of the five-year Olympiads; 816 of Rome, 
according to Timteus, Cicero and others; 776 of the four-year Olym- 
piads; 753 of Rome, according to Varro; 747 of Nebo-Nazaru, or 
" Nabonassar " and 15 of Augustus. It should be observed that the 
Greek Olympiads, which were originally five-year periods or penta- 
eteris, whose epoch was in B. C. 884 were altered during the Augustan 
period to four-year periods or tetrateris, whose epoch was fixed in 
B. C. 776, thus making a difference in many deduced dates of 108 
years. It should also be observed that the asra of Rome, from which 
many dates are commonly deduced by the equivalent A. U. 753= 
A. D. o, or A. U. 754=A. D. i, has evidently been altered twice; 
that the antiquity of Rome was reduced by Augustus from B. C. 816 
to B. C. 738 whilst it was afterwards augmented by the Latin Sacred 
College to B. C. 753, which has long been and is still its familiar sera. 
When these changes were made, the various manuscripts within reach 
of the college, whether Augustan or medieval, in which deductions 
from, or comparisons with the Greek Olympiads or other foreign 
seras occurred, were altered to tally with such changes of the asra. 
But in such a vast undertaking some of the equivalent dates were 
overlooked; manuscripts then lost to view have since been recov- 
ered ; and above all, immense collections of ancient coins and mar- 
bles have been brought into view in recent years; all of which evi- 
dences unite to restore the ancient dates and prove the age and ex- 
tent of the alterations. In the present work, except where explicit 
notice is given to the reader, these alterations of the Sacred College 
have not been touched. No attempt has been made to reconstruct 
the accepted chronology. Nevertheless, it is but proper to advise 
the reader that the alterations of the Roman sera above alluded to 



iERAS. 63 

were not made withont introducing a host of conflicting dates into 
history, which hitherto the modern critic has sought in vain to recon- 
cile with probability. A large proportion of these dislocations arise 
out of the 15 years of alteration which was made or completed by 
the Sacred College, probably during the pontificate of Gregory VII, 
A. D. 1073-85. Many dislocations which arose from the Augustan 
alterations of 108 and 78 years, are still to be observed in histori- 
cal accounts. 

The boldness with which these alterations of the Western Calen- 
dar were made raises the suspicion that similar alterations have been 
made in the Eastern Calendar. "Joannes Moses, collector of the 
land-tax for the province of Pegu, said that whenever the king 
thought the years of the sera too many, he changed it." (Dr. Francis 
Buchanan, in Asiat. Res. VI, 171.) But this statement only relates 
to one province and to the last century. However, there are rea- 
sons to believe that a similar remark is applicable to earlier times. 
Col. Wilford says that several "corrections " of the Indian Calendar 
have been made at various times, especially one of 14 years, the 
length of his reign, ascribed to Bhartrihari. (Asiat. Res. IX, 200.) 
But neither he nor any other chronologist has yet impugned the in- 
tegrity of the more ancient Indian dates. 

In this maze of alterations and dislocated dates the Divine year 
will be found a steady light which, though not absolutely reliable, 
affords a guide where otherwise all were darkness, doubt and con- 
fusion. 



B. C. 6984, Europe. — Dionysian Anno Mundi, computed by Al- 
fonso X, King of Castile and Leon and published under his patronage 
in A. D. 1488, in about which year the end of the world had been pre- 
dicted. This collection of astronomical and astrological materials is 
known as the Alfonsine or Alphonsine tables. According to Muller, 
the Anno Mundi of the royal astrologer was B. C. 6984; while 
StraUchius says it was B. C. 6484. Assuming Muller's equivalent to 
to be the more correct one, the Anno Mundi of Alfonso appears to 
have been constructed of 13 Dionysian divine years (each of 532 
common years), dating backward from B. C. 78. This would carry 
it to B. C. 6994 instead of 6984. See Table D. 

B. C. 6777, N. India.— Buddhic sera. Says Pliny, Nat. Hist. VI, 
xxxi, 5 : "From Liber Pater (Buddha, or Bacchus, or Dion-Isus), 
to Alexander the Great, the Indians count 6451 years and three 



64 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

months." — ^' A finis VI, MCCCCLI adjiciunt et menses tres." This 
sera began on the autumnal equinox, or ^^ menses tres" before the an- 
niversary of the Apotheosis of Alexander the Great, which latter 
event was celebrated in Egypt on the winter solstice. The 6451 
years are reckoned backward from Alexander's Conquest of the Pun- 
jab, B. C. 326. The figure given by Pliny, namely 6451 years from 
Dionysius to Alexander, is supported by Solinus, who in ch. 64 (53) 
has the same figure for the same interval. Arrian's figure of 6042 
years from Dionysius to Sandrocottus is substantially the same 
thing: It measures the interval from Buddha, B. C. 6384 (Table D) 
to Chandra Gupta, B. C. 342. Pliny and Solinus adopted the method 
of computation reported by Megasthenes, while Arrian preferred the 
Dionysian method which had become popular in the West. 

B. C. 6777, N. India. — Saptarshi-Kal, or Lok-Kal, or the aera of 
the Seven Rishis, or asterisms, of the Great Bear: a Brahma-Buddhic 
sera of les Chrishna employed in Cashmere and Northern, but un- 
known in Southern, India. Gen. Alex. Cunningham, "Book of In- 
dian ^ras." He employs this eera by synchronising it with Pliny's 
6451^ years, added to 326 (B. C), the year of Alexander's Con- 
quest of the Punjab. His authorities for the sera of the Saptarshi- 
Kal are Vridda Garga and the Puranas, who accord an interval of 
2700 )'ears between one Lok-Kal and another, or 100 years to each 
of the 27 Lunar Mansions into which the Hindus divide the ecliptic. 
Hence, the succeeding Lok-Kal was in 4077, "when Chrishna, the 
the Splendour of Vishnu, ascended to Heaven," etc. Vrihat San- 
hita, c. xiii, 1-4. Cunningham's rendition of the Lok-Kal is not un- 
disputed. According to Varaha Mihira and the later astronomers, 
the Lok-Kals occurred in B. C. 6077, 3377, 677, etc. Sewell has 
still other periods. (See Table E, herein.) But Cunningham's 
seem to be the best authenticated and he is supported by Stokvis 
and other chronologists. 

B. C. 6717, N. India. — From Buddha (or Bacchus, or Dion-Isus) 
to the ascension (reign) of Sandracottus, or Kandra Gupta (B. C. 
315) the Indians calculated, according to Magasthenes, in Arrian's 
"India," just 6402 years. Hence 6402 plus 315=6717. Duncker's 
"India," 72-4. This computation has neither significance nor value. 
It is based on an exceptional ms. of Arrian and an uncertain date of 
Kandra Gupta. 

B, C. 6658, N. India. — Brahma-Buddhic sera, 6402 years before 
the death and bodily ascension to heaven of Sandracottus, or Kandra 
Gupta (B. C. 256). Magasthenes, in the version of Arrian's "India" 



^RAS. 65 

employed by Duncker. Bearing in mind the astrological signifi- 
cance of the Divine Year, it is evident from this and the foregoing 
dates, all of which were deduced from the accounts brought to Eu- 
rope by Megasthenes, that in the time of Alexander and Seleucus 
the Hindus looked for the Dissolution of the World and the Day of 
Judgment within a comparatively brief period. The lifetime they 
assigned to the world was equal to ten ages, avatars, or incarna- 
tions, each of 658 years and according to this one, the lowest of the 
Megasthenic computations that has come down to us, the Day of 
Judgment was due in B. C. 78, the period of Quichena, les Chrishna 
or Salivahana. Thus, 6658 less 78, equals 6580 years, which was the 
period that the Brahminical astrologers assigned to the lifetime of 
the world from beginning to end. The date above assigned to 
Kandra Gupta, who was a contemporary of Alexander and Seleucus, 
is that of his death according to Bunsen. See B. C. 330 and 315 for 
asras of Kandra Gupta. 

B. C. 6369, India. — Brahma-Buddhic aera. According to Col. 
Wilford in Asiat. Res. V, 242, etc., and Dr. Hales I, 195, Megas- 
thenes (they say) reported the Indian Anno Mundi at 6042 }{ years 
before Alexander's invasion of India in B. C. 327. Hence the In- 
dian sera was in B. C. 6369. This computation couples the fixed year 
of one account with the running year of the other, 

B. C. 6369, Persia. — Eudoxus and Aristotle held that the first 
Zoroaster lived 6, 000 years before Plato. Pliny XXX, 2. As Plato's 
sera was B. C. 427-347 this computation will bring the sera of the first 
Zoroaster to about this date. Hermippus, B. C. 210, thought that Zo- 
roaster flourished about 5,000 years before the Trojan war. Pliny, 
XXX, 2. Niebuhr believes that he never existed at all. He is prob- 
ably a Persian adaptation of one of the numerous creations of 
Brahma-Buddhic astrological fancy. See B. C. 630 and 590. 

B. C, 6310, Rome. — Anno Mundi calculated by Onuphrius Panvi- 
nus, about A. D. 1560. Hales I, 211. 

B. C. 6204, Antioch. — Anno Mundi, according to an Indian ac- 
count of Megasthenes, cited by Hales. This is evidently a blunder. 

B. C. 6174, Arabia. — Anno Mundi of the Arabians, cited by 
Hales. See B. C. 6065. 

B. C. 6158, Babylon. — Anno Mundi of the Chaldean chronicles, 
cited by Bailly. 

B, C. 6157, China. — Anno Mundi according to the Chinese chron- 
icles, cited by Bailly. 



66 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 6138, Alexandria.— Anno Mundi according to Diogenes 
Laertius of Cilicia who died B. C. 222. Playfair. 

B. C. 6128, Egypt. — Anno Mundi of the Greeks in Egypt. 
Bailly. 

B. C. 6110, Russia. — Anno Mundi of the modern Russian Greek 
church. Whittaker's Almanac, 1896, p. 66. 

B. C. 6081, Greece. — Anno Mundi of Diodorus Siculus, accord- 
ing to Playfair. Diodorus died in tempo Augusto. 

B. C. 6077, India. — Hindu incarnation, or year of the Lok-kal 
according to Varaha Mihira. See Table E. 

B. C. 6065, Arabia. — ^ra of " the Great Isskander of the Two 
Horns." (Isskander Zu al-Karnayn.) Epoch, Safar loth, or March 
25th, the vernal equinox. This is evidently meant for les Chrishna, 
Bacchus, or Buddha. The ^ra is curiously preserved in the " Tai- 
lor's Story " of the Arabian Nights, the scene of which is laid in 
Baghdad, Safar loth, A. H. 653, or March 25th, A. D. 1255, which 
is said to be the 7320th year of the sera. In Sir Richard Burton's 
" literal translation" (1885) the " Two Horns" are omitted and in 
a foot-note to his " Terminal Essay" the aera is referred to, but mis- 
understood, and explained away. See another Arabian Anno Mundi 
herein under B. C. 6174. This is evidently the same aera, the differ- 
ence being 108 (109) years: an explanation of which will be found 
in Chapter VI herein. 

B. C. 6000, India. — Pre-Augustan date of Buddha's birth. See 
Table B. 

B. C. 6000, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi according to Suidas, 
A. D. 1090. Playfair. 

B. C. 6000, Antioch. — Anno Mundi of 'the "primitive church ' 
founded on the " Septuagint." Gibbon, "Dec. and Fall," I, 562, n. 
See A. D. 1000. 

B. C. 5877, Egypt. — Anno Mundi of Manetho, B. C. 304. Hales, 
I, 241. 

B, C. 5872, Judea. — Anno Mundi of the Septuagint. Putnam. 
This sera was calculated by the Jews of Spain in the 12th or 13th 
century of our sera. 

B. C. 5812, India. — Pre-x\ugustan date of the third incarnation 
of Brahma. See Table A. 

B. C. 5598, Byzantium.— Anno Mundi of the Greek church. 
Woolhouse, "Measures and Moneys," p. 206. 



^RAS. 67 

B. C. 5512, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi of "the Christians," as 
reckoned during the tenth century of our sera, according to Albiruni ; 
ed. 1879, p. 18. 

B. C. 5509, Byzantium. — Sept. i. Anno Mundi employed by 
Argyrus A. D. 1372 and by Bury and Stokvis. See B. C. 5508 and 
5493 and A. D. 1492. 

B. C. 5508, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi attributed to Julius Afri- 
canus, who is said to have flourished A. D, 222, to Lactantius, who is 
assigned to the beginning of the fourth century and to Panadorus, 
the Alexandrian, fifth century; subsequently adopted by the Italian 
papacy under Leo VI., A. D. 886-911. (Greswell F. C. II, 120.) It 
commenced ist September. Cf. The Pandits, G. C. Tarkalankar and 
P. N. Saraswati, in " Chronological Tables," p. xxix (largely copied 
from Lieut. Col. John Warren's "Kala Sankalita"). The Russians 
continued to employ this sera until 1700 (reign of Peter the Great) 
and although the ecclesiastical new year day fell, according to some 
authors, on 21st March and according to others, on ist April, yet 
the civil year began on ist September. Picot, "Tab. Chron." I, 
245. See B. C. 5500. The same year (5508) was deduced by Jo- 
seph Scaliger from the Septuagint. Clinton says B. C. 5508. Ni- 
cephorus says. B. C. 5507, or 5506. According to Bailly, the (mod- 
ern) Persian chronology gives B. C. 5507. Bury says (for Byzan- 
tium) 5509. " Later Rom. Emp." II, xxii. The Rev. Dr. Hales 
gives 120 different years for the creation, varying from B. C. 6984 
(Alfonso X, King of Spain) to B. C. 3616 (Rabbi Lipman, in •' Uni- 
versal History ") and adds that this number might be swelled to 300. 
Dr. Hales himself fixes the Creation at B. C. 541 1. 

B. C. 5506, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi deduced by the Latin 
Sacred College from the chronological work of Nicephorus Gregoras, 
a Greek ecclesiastic, and at one time a favorite of the emperor Can- 
tacuzenus. Nicephorus was born about A. D. 1283, died about 1360. 
He wrote the history of his country in 38 books, extending substan- 
tially from the Fall of Constantinople in 1204 to the year 1358. The 
last 14 of these books remained unpublished until after the Italian 
Revolution of 1848, a delay which is attributable to obstacles inter- 
posed by the Papal See. Nicephorus, possessed of great learning, 
was especially skilled in astronomy and chronology, one proof of 
which is that he proposed to correct the Julian year. He thus an- 
ticipated by more than two centuries the calendar reform afterwards 
accomplished by Pope Gregory XIII. The work of Nicephorus 
opens with the Nativity of Christ, which he fixes in the 42nd year of 



68 A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

Augustus. Originally this synchronised with A. D. 15; but, owing 
to the 15 years' alteration of the Latin Church, it now agrees with 
A. D. o. or A. D. i, or, according to Latin chronology, as applied to 
the tables of Nicephorus, with the 15th year before the reign of Ti- 
berius. 

After the recovery of Constantinople by the Byzantines in 1261 
efforts were made to reconcile the Greek and Roman religions, chro- 
nologies, etc. In these negociations Nicephorus took an active part. 
A portion of his contribution consisted of introducing into the chro- 
nology of the Greek Empire as many years (15) as had already been 
added to the chronology of the Roman Empire by the Latin Church. 
Three of these years he inserted between the reigns of Pertinax and 
Diocletian, two in the reign of Valens and four in that of Justin II. 
The remaining six years were distributed throughout a dozen reigns, 
as is shown in the following table : 

Nicephorus This Liber ends with the — 

Lib. Page 

I 125 19th Tiberius 

II 219 14th Nero 

IV 341 Death of Pertinax 

VI 437 14th Diocletian 

VIII 667 Death of Constantine 

IX 809 " " Constantius II. 

X 104 " " Jovian 

XI 216 " " Valens 

XII 336 " " Theodosius 

XIII 430 " " Arcadius 

XIV 581 " " Theodosius II. 

XV 635 " " Leo 

XVI 727 " " Anastasius 

XVII 803 " " Justin II. 

B. C. 5503, Alexandria. — Anno Mundi of the Greek Church of 
Alexandria. The Pandits' " Chron. Tables," p. xxiv. 

B. C. 5502, Alexandria. — Anno Mundi of the Copts and the 
Greek Church of Alexandria. Cf. Stokvis, ' ' Chron. " and Woolhouse 
" Measures and Moneys." From this sera ten years were subtracted 
by the Latins. See below, B. C. 5492. 

B.C. 5500, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi, commences ist Septem- 
ber (29th August?), attributed to Julius Africanus. "We know from 
Syncellus and a fragment (supposed to be) of Julius Africanus him- 
self that he assumed the year of the world, 5500, to be that of the 
Incarnation." Rev. E. R. Hodges' rendition of "Cory's Frag- 
ments," ed. 1876, p. 98. George the Syncellus, (/. ^. , cell-compan- 
ion) was a fellow-monk of the Greek patriarch of Constantinople and 
was born about A. D. 800. "Africanus, in his Chronicle, reckoned 
5500 years from the creation of the world to the ageof Julius(?) Cse- 



Nice- 


Equal 


Roman 


Differ- 


phorus. 


to 


Fasti 


ence 


A.M. 


A. D. 


A.D. 




5539 


33 


32 


I 


5575 


70 


68 


2 


5701 


196 


193 


3 


5795 


290 


284 


6 


5847 


342 


337 


5 


5872 


367 


361 


6 


5875 


370 


364 


6 


5891 


386 


378 


8 


5909 


404 


395 


9 


5923 


418 


408 


10 


5965 


460 


450 


10 


5990 


485 


474 


II 


6034 


529 


518 


II 


6098 


593 


578 


15 



^RAS. 69 

sar. Nothing remains of this work but what Eusebius has pre- 
served." Rev. J. Lempriere, Class. Die. By the "age of Julius 
Cassar " is probably meant the Apotheosis of Augustus Csesar (See 
below, B. C. 15) which according to several of the Byzantine chronolo- 
gists marked the 5500th year of the world. The period of 5500 years 
is precisely 50 Ludi Saeculares. The date which is clearly astrologi- 
cal was probably shifted from Augustus to Christ some time during 
the eighth century. 

B. C. 5500, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi attributed to Hippolytus, 
who is said to have suffered under Septimius Severus, A. D. 230. 
See A. D. i. It was probably shifted from Augustus to Christ dur- 
ing the eighth century. 

B. C. 5493, Abyssinia. — Coptic sera commences 29th of August, 
Old Style. The Pandits' " Chron." p. xxiv and Stokvis. The year 
is evidently derived from the Byzantine B. C. 5502, whilst the day is 
that of the death of Augustus Csesar. See A. D. 14. 

B. C. 549B, Antioch. — Epoch Aug. 29. Anno Mundi employed 
by Theophanes, A. D. 751-818. " It differs from the more common 
Byzantine aera of the Nativity, viz., A. M. 5509, by 16 years." Bury 
"Later Rom. Emp.," I, xxii and 413. Bury says it (5493) was "the 
sera of Antioch (or rather of Panodorus, the Alexandrian) which was 
used by Theophanes." Ibid, II, 425. The real difference is one in- 
diction, or 15 years. Stokvis says B. C. 5494. See B. C. 5508. 

B. C. 5492, Antioch. — Epoch Aug. 29. (Stokvis says Sept. i.) 
Anno Mundi of the Latin Church. The subtraction of ten years 
from the Greek, to make the Roman Septuagint sera, is usually at- 
tributed to the age of Diocletian; but there is no valid proof that 
the Greek Anno Mundi was employed at that period. The earliest 
Greek Anno Mundi must have been fixed later than the adoption of 
Constantinople as the capital of the Empire; indeed later than the 
canon ascribed to Dionysius Exiguus. Cf. " Middle Ages," ch. VIIL 
See also B. C. 5506. 

B. C. 5469, Rome. — Anno Mundi attributed to Sulpitius Severus, 
who died A. D. 420. Hales, I, 211. 

B. C. 5411, Byzantium. — Anno Mundi of the Greek Church, 
Hales, p. loi. 

B. C. 5369, Antioch. — Anno Mundi, based on Megasthenes. 
Hales. 

B.C. 5344,Judea. — Anno Mundi of the Talmudists. Putnam* 
Not of the Talmudists, but of the commentators on the Talmud, 
about the 12th or 13th century. 



70 



A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 



B. C. 5342, India. — Birth of Buddha. Divine Year. Indian date. 
Table B. 

B. C. 5206, Mexico. — Anno Mundi of the native astrologers, ac- 
cording to Boturini in Lord Kingsborough's "Mexico," VI, 176. 
Higgins, Anacal., II, 25. 

B. C. 5200, Caesaria. — Anno Mundi of Eusebius, Gibbon, I, 
562 n. 

B. C. 5199, Mexico. — Anno Mundi of the laity of Mexico accord- 
ing to the early christian converts in that country. Boturini, op. cit. 

B. C. 5054, Persia. — Turki aera of the Creation. " From the 
time of Timur until Julal-ud-din Mohammed Akbar, there were three 
aeras in use, the Hegira, the Turki and the Julal-ud-diri. The Turki 
began with the Creation of the world and is computed in (Jovian) 
cycles or 12 years. In Maharram A. H. 11 38, there had elapsed 565 
cycles and the fourth year of the following cycle was in progress. 
Each year begins with the new moon of the month Jeth (Jaistha, or 
Ani) of the Hindu calendar; and the months are lunar. Intercala- 
tion is made at the end of each two or three years." The Pandits* 
"Chronology," p. xviii, quoting from a Persian MS. belonging to a 
gentleman of Benares (see A. D. 1075). 

B. C. 4825, India. — Erroneous aera of Parasurama, employed 
in some works of reference. See B. C. 11 76 or 11 75 and the recur- 
rence of the Parasuramic or Kollam ages at intervals of a millennium 
thereafter. 

B. C, 4714, Europe. — January ist, commencement of the "Julian 
period," an astrological cycle invented by Joseph Scaliger, in 1583, 
to avoid the uncertainty of mundane aeras. It begins with a Solar- 
lunar conjunction and continues for 7980 years, an interval formed 
by multiplying the approximate periods of a solar cycle of 28, a 
lunar cycle of 19 and an indiction of 15 years, in other words, 15 
Dionysian Divine Years of 532 years each. Stokvis, Chambers, 
Woolhouse, The Pandits, and Robert Sewell, "Indian Calendars," 
all commence this period January ist, B. C. 4713. 

B. C. 4700, Judea. — Anno Mundi of the Samaritan Pentateuch. 
Putnam. Abendana says that the earliest use of any mundane aera 
among the Jews was about A. D. 1000. Lyons, " Jewish Calendar," 
p. 26. 

B. C. 4684, India. — Hindu re-incarnation. Table B. 

B. C. 4658, Judea. — Anno Mundi of Josephus. Putnam. 

B. C. 4346, China. — Anno Mundi invented by Liu-Shu, A. D. 
1068, in his book "Wai-ki." Fergusson, no. 



jEras. 71 

B. C. 4026, India.— Hindu re-incarnation. Pre-Augustan date 
of Buddha's birth. Table B. 

B. C. 4007, Rome. — Anno Mundi. Hutton ; the Pandits ; etc. 
. B. C. 4004, Rome. — April 21st. First day of Creation and Anno 
Mundi of the English Bible. Pascal and De Sacey (authors of Port 
Royal); Usher; and Greswell. This is the jera commonly used in 
Protestant states. The difference between this and the Septaugint 
and Samaritan aeras is attributed to the fact that the latter add 
greatly to the ages of the patriarchs. The epoch is the Roman 
Palalia. 

B. C. 4000 Rome.— Anno Mundi of Bell's "Pantheon"; article 
"Merodach." 

B. C. 3996 England.— Anno Mundi of the Second Adventists. 
Epoch, the autumnal equinox. "Lime-light views were given of 
the Zodiac in order to show that there could not have been any 
eclipses before (this) Creation year " ! J. B. Dimbleby in Proc. Br. 
Chron. and Astron. Ass. London, January, 1898. 

B. C. 3950, Judea. — Jewish Anno Mundi of Scaliger, apud Put- 
nam, p. 3. 

B. C. 3780, Jndea. — Anno Mundi of the Jews, as reckoned 
during the tenth century of our sera, namely, "3448 years before 
Isskander (Alexander) ". Albiruni, op. cit. 18. This was the earliest 
calculation of any Mundane sera among the Jews. Abendana, apud 
Lyons. 

B. C. 3761, Bombay. — Anno Mundi of the Bombay Jews, that 
is, the " ancient ffira " . . . which is " never used by chronolo- 
gists, but for times before Christ." No explanation is given by the 
Pandits of this alleged custom. This sera began with Nissan (about 
the vernal equinox), whereas the years otherwise employed begin with 
Tishri (about the autumnal equinox). Stokvis says October 5. The 
ancient Jews are alleged to have employed the sera of Nebo-Nazaru. 
(But this began on February 26th. See B. C. 747.) The chief dif- 
ference between the Oriental and Western Jewish calendars is that 
the former place the embolismic days of their lunar year in any of 
the five longest solar months, whereas the latter invariably throw 
them into Adar. Intercalation in Bombay is made on the 3rd, 6th, 
8th, nth, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the Metonic cycle. This 
custom cannot be traced higher than the 14th century of our sera, 
although some chronologists have assigned it to the nth century. 
The Pandits' " Chron ". The sera itself can hardly be older than the 
loth century of our sera. 



72 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 3760, Cordova.— Molad Tohu (Birth of the Void) or 
Mundane aera of the Modern Jews. Rabbi Abendana (d. 1685) says 
that this sera was first used by the Spanish Jews during the tenth 
century. There are some reasons for believing it to have been fixed 
in the twelfth century. The Calendar is lunar, the year consisting 
of 354 days with an intercalary thirteenth month (Adar II,) every 
third year, to take in the lost days of the solar year. The New Year's 
day is Tishri ist, which falls about the autumnal equinox and is cele- 
brated as Rosh Hashanah, and also as the feast of Trumpets. It 
has been alleged (See B. C. 3761) that the "ancient" Jews used the 
sera of Nebo-Nazaru ; but there are no coins, or other monuments to 
substantiate this statement, which negatively is contradicted by the 
entire absence of dates in the Hebrew Scriptures written after this 
period. In B. C. 524 (Greswell) the Jews gave their present names 
to the months of the year, most of such names being those of 
Oriential gods, as Nissan, Ayar, Zif, Sivan, Thammuz, Abib and 
Elool for Nyssa, Ashar, Deva the Zif, Siva, Thammuz the Buddha, 
Aswin and El. At the same time they changed the composition of 
the year from ten civil months of $6 days to twelve civil months of 
30 days each with intercalates, such added months being Tishri II, 
and Kanoon II. The earliest Jewish sera of which any explicit 
monumental or literary remains exist is that of the Asmonean repub- 
lic. (See B. C. 143). The next is that of Rabbi Hillel (B. C. 112- 
A. D. 8) who is said to have fixed the Mundane sera in a Greek year 
corresponding with B. C. 3700. Scaliger says that though the modern 
rabbinical calendar professes to go back to the date of the Creation, its 
true date is not older than A. D. 344. Rev. E. Greswell, F. C, 
Intro. 103 and II, 115 is of the same opinion. But see B. C. 3780 
for Albiruni's statement with regard to the Jewish Calendar. In the 
nth century the Alexandrian Jews fixed the Mundane sera in B. C. 
3752. Albiruni. (See B. C. 3780 and 3752.) In the nth or 12th 
century the Jews of Cordova fixed upon B. C. 3760, the sera which 
through the influence of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, has since 
grown into common use. In the 13th century Abulfaragi, an Arme- 
nian bishop, said that the " Eastern " Jews fixed their Mundane sera 
in B. C. 4220. In the Sedar 01am Sutha, or "Small Chronicle of 
the World ", attributed to the year A. D. 1121, the Mundane sera is 
fixed in B. C. 4359, which is precisely one Brahminical Divine year 
earlier than Hillel's date; just as the Jewish sera of Cordova is pre- 
cisely one Brahminical Divine year earlier than the post- Augustan 
date of the Brahminical Calijoga; a fact that stamps all of these seras 



iERAS. 73 

as astrological and serves to mark the period of their invention. 
With regard to the head of the year, Dupuis (II, ii, 59, 285) says that 
Thammuz, (which is the same as Thamos, Tamus, Thamies, Thor, 
Thoth, Teut, Tat, Taat, Tatius, etc.), at present the fourth month 
of the Hebrew year, was anciently the first month; that it was sym- 
bolised by the zodion of the Ram; and that the New Year began 
on the winter solstice, which is the birthday of Buddha. The 
scriptural New Year is Nissan ist, which, in a solar calendar would 
fall on the Vernal equinox and in a lunar one, on some day near it. 
According to Rabbi Joshua this was the day of the Creation ; while 
Rabbi Eleazar, with equal reason, proves that the world was created 
at the autumnal equinox. Cf. Philo Judseus; Josephus; the Talmud 
("Rosh Hashanah"); Albiruni; Maimonides; R. Menassah ben Is- 
rael's "Conciliator," I, 127, ed. Lindo; Rabbi Isaac Aberbanal's 
Commentaries; Rabbi Jacques J. Lyons and Abraham de Sola, 
"The Jewish Calendar," Montreal, 5614-1854; and " Middle Ages 
Revisited," App. P. 

B. C. 3760, Masonry. — Mundane aera of the Feeemasons, which 
is the same as that of the Jews. Another Masonic Anno Mundi is 
B. C. 5000. 

B. C. 3758, Ghazaria. — Anno Mundi. Diodurus Siculus, lib. 
II, iii, says that in the island of the Hypoboreans they observe a 
cycle of 19 years during which time " the stars perform their courses 
and return to the same point; for which reason the Greeks call this 
revolution of 19 years the Great Year." Booth, the English trans- 
lator of Diodorus, supposed this "island" to be Britain; but there 
is nothing except national partiality to sustain this conjecture, 
Britain was well known to the Greeks as the Cassiterides and to the 
Romans as Britain. The uniform testimony of the Greek writers in- 
dicates that the Hypoborean regions were in Scythia, that the Greek 
knowledge of them was earlier than their knowledge of Britain and 
that such knowledge came with the Greek trade that flowed through 
Ghazaria and the Caspian sea. This trade extended westward as far 
Messapia in Italy, close to Sicily, where Diodorus, who was a Sici- 
lian Greek, probably got his information, "Island" may mean in- 
differently an island or a promontory, as in the well known case of 
Jutland, The Holy Land of the Ghazars or Khazars appears to have 
been situated in the northern part of the Caspian Sea and this is 
probably the place favoured with the miracle presently to be men- 
tioned. The cycle alluded to is evidently the Metonic, of 235 luna- 
tions, about 19 years. At the end of the same chapter Diodorus 



74 A NICW CHRONOLOGY. 

says that the 197th cycle of the Hypoboreans was celebrated by 
Apollo in person, who with harps and other musical instruments 
chaunted the praises of his own glory, these heavenly strains lasting 
from the Vernal equinox to " the rising of the Pleiades." Diodorus 
omits to say in what year Apollo thus appeared upon earth ; but as he 
wrote during the Augustan age and employed the Augustan chro- 
nology, there is warrant for believing that the story was intended to 
synchronise with the period of the Roman incarnation, or B. C. 15. 
In such case the Anno Mundi of the Hypoboreans was 197x235= 
46,295 lunations, equal to something over 3743 years before the 
Apotheosis of Augustus; in other words, about 3758 or 3759 years 
B. C. This is one divine year or 658 common years before the In- 
dian Calijoga. It coincides very closely with the Anno Mundi of the 
Jews, who evidently got more than one of their institutes from the 
Gharzarians. It is hardly necessary to add that this Anno Mundi is 
of Brahminical origin. This chronology of the Messianic myth was 
revived in the 13th century by Genghis Khan the monarch of Zaga- 
tai (North Caspian) and the conqueror of China, See A. I). 187, 
845, 1206 and I 227. 

1$. C. f^752, Alexiindria. — Anno Mundi of the tenth century 
Jews, who counted from Adam to Alexander 3448 years and from 
vVlexander to Jesus, 304 years. Albiruni, p. 18. 

B. C. 3714, Cashmir, or Little Tibet. — /Kra mentioned in 
Taylor's History of India. 

B. C. 3S00, Persia. — Anno Mundi used by the Persians of the 
tenth century of our a^ra, who counted from the beginning of the 
world to Zoroaster, 3000 years and to Alexander, 258 more. Albu- 
rini, op. cit., 17. Assuming the ?era of Alexander to be B. C. 332, 
we have 3000 plus 258 plus 332=3590. 

B. C. 35(>2, Persia. — Anno Mundi of the tenth century Persians, 
based upon the medieval Christian assumption that the sera of Alex- 
ander was B. C. 304. Albiruni. See B. C. 3590. 

B. C. 33(>8, India. — Hindu pre-Augustan date of the Divine Year 
dating back from the birth of Buddha. Table B. 

B. C. 318S, India.— Beginning of the Vrihaspati or Jovian 60- 
year cycles according to the Surya Siddhanta. See B. C. 3174 and 
1176 and A. D. 1796. 

B, C. 3174, India. — Beginning of the Vrihaspati or Jovian 60- 
year cycles of the Surya Siddhanta, the 69th cycle having ended in 
A. D. 965-6. The Pandits "Chron." See A. D. 1025. 

B. C. 31G4, India.— Brahma Kalpa. Higgins, " Ancal." I, 182. 



^RAS, 75 

This may be a corruption of the Calijoga, from which it differs by 63 
years. 

B. C. 3128, India. — Barhaspatya Kala; or beginning of the Jo- 
vian 60-year cycles. Stokvis. 

B. C. 3114, India. — Beginning of the Vrihaspati or Jovian 60- 
year cycles by the Telinga account. The Pandits' "Chron." See 
A. D. 1025 and 1807. 

B. C. 3102, India. The Calijoga, sometimes written Kali- 
yuga; Kali, meaning time, and joga or yuga, conjunction. Oppert, 
however, translates Kali to mean "first." The Calijoga commem- 
morates the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth incarna- 
tion of lesnu or Vishnu, " who manifested his glory to mankind" 
in the name and form of les Chrishna; les meaning the Sun and 
Chrishna meaning black, probably referring to a solar eclipse. 
Hence it is that the statues of les Chrishna represent him with a 
black face, complemented with woolly hair. Father Sonnerat (Voy- 
age aux Indes) regards the Calijoga as the beginning of the Fourth 
Brahminical Age which began 4883 years before his time, A. D. 1782. 
This relation and year both agree with the determinations of Mr, 
Halhed in his Preface to the Code of Manu. Father Sonnerat goes 
on to say that the Calijoga was marked by the erection of a great 
temple to Juggernaut, between whose devotees and the celebration 
of the Calijoga he thus establishes a connection. The great an- 
tiquity of the Calijoga is confirmed by a variety of evidences. It is 
alluded to in the Puranas; it is employed as the starting point of 
the Brahma Siddhanta and Surya Siddhanta, two of the oldest 
astronomical treatises of the Hindus; it is the starting point of the 
Chrishnabouram or astronomical tables of the Siamese Chrishna, ob- 
tained in 1687 by Father Loubere and compared with the Tables of 
Tirvalore during the i8th century by Father Le Gentil; it is older 
than the Anno Mundi of the Jews and Free-masons, both of which 
are based upon the Calijoga; and it is older than the sera of Liber 
Pater brought into Europe by Megasthenes and preserved by Pliny 
and Arrian, because that sera also is evidently based upon the Calijoga. 
The reverence in which it is still held is evinced by the fact that it 
was employed so recently as the last century in dating the gold mo- 
hurs of Hyder AH, Sultan of Mysore, A. D. 1760-82 and those of his 
son Tippoo Saib, A. D. 1785-99. (Kelly's ''Cambist.," II, 217,) 

The Hindu astronomers assert and Bailly believed that the Cali- 
joga was the date when a conjunction of the sun, moon and several 
of the planets was actually observed and recorded. Laplace could 



76 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

find no such conjunction without going back to B. C. 4300. He, 
therefore, concluded that the Hindu and Siamese astronomical tables 
had been modified in modern times, a conclusion in which he was 
corroborated by Playfair. (Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. 1790.) As 
these eminent savants were not aware of the alteration in the divi- 
sion of the Hindu year from ten months of 36 days to 12 months of 
30 days each, their calculations will require revision. On the other 
hand, Brennand (Hindu Astron. 1896) and Rev. E. Burgess (Jour. 
Am. Or. Soc. 1895) regard the year of the Calijoga as having been 
fixed before or during the Mahabharata wars; a conclusion which 
appears to be corroborated by numerous convincing evidences. The 
same year, B. C. 3102, is deduced by Max Duncker (India, p. 72) 
from the Puranas. As will appear further on, when discussing the 
epoch of the Calijoga, this seems to have been originally fixed on or 
about the winter solstice, and afterwards changed to Feb. 17-18, a 
change which had the effect to alter the year from B. C. 3102 toB. C. 
3101. (Wm. Marsden, Phil. Trans. LXXX, pt. ii, 565.) But it is 
not certain that the epoch fell originally on the winter solstice, be- 
cause the epoch of the aera reported by Megasthenes fell on the au- 
tumnal equinox. 

An attempt was made by Rev. Wm. Hales to lower the antiquity 
of the Calijoga to B. C. 1913, 1905, 1370 and 1078 and by Baron 
Bunsen to lower it to B. C. 1448; but the methods employed by these 
chronologists do not warrant the conclusions they reached. The 
Calijoga may not be what the Hindus have pretended, namely, the 
sera of a quintuple conjunction observed and recorded at the time; 
but it certainly is an sera invented not later than the 12th and possi- 
bly the 15th century B. C, which, like the Julian sera of Scaliger, 
was designed to afford a basis for astronomical calculations and one 
which has actually served that purpose ever since. (Brennand ; Bur- 
gess.) 

Owing to numerous changes of the Indian calendar — from solar to 
lunar and from lunar to sidereal reckonings, from ten to 12 months' 
years and from years beginning with one particular month to years 
beginning with others — it is impracticable to trace the epoch or New 
Year's Day of the Calijoga with precision. According to the date 
preserved by Pliny the year of Liber Pater in the time of Megasthenes 
commenced on the autumnal equinox ; but it is not certain that such 
was also the case with the Calijoga. The beginning of the Hebrew 
year on or about the same day seems to confirm the day given by Pliny, 
but the Hebrew New Year day appears to have been of Seleucidan 



^RAS, 77 

origin and of not very ancient date. Albiruni fixes the epoch of the 
Calijoga on the first Aswin, which in the Tamil calendar fell in 1897 
on September i6th. On the other hand, Stokvis, Brennand, Duff 
Rickmers, Sewell and other modern astronomers and chronologists 
fix the epoch of the Calijoga on the 1 7th- 1 8th February, B. C. 3102; 
and there we must be content to leave it. Cf. Bailly, "Astron, 
Ind. ;" Col. Wilford in Asiat. Res., IX; Prinsep, "Useful Tables;" 
Brennand, 82; Colebrooke's "Essays;" Sir Geo. Cornewall-Lewis, 
etc. 

B. C. 3102, Arabia. — Anno Mundi of the ancient Arabians. 
Max Idler, " L'ere des Arabes," p. 32. 

B. C. 3100, India.— Tamil Durmuki Kali. Pandits "Chron." 
p. xix. 

B. C. 3098, India.— Varapa Kalpa. Higgins, Anacal. I, 182. 

B. C. 3076, India.— Saptarshi. Robt. Sewell, "The Indian Cal- 
endar," Table III. Duff, p. 4, calls it the "Laukika, or Saptarshi" 
sera, traditionally used in Cashmir, adding that it reckons by cycles 
of a hundred years. On p. 62 it is called the Saptarshi or Lokakala 
cycle. Epoch, Chaitra ist. 

B. C. 2757, China. — Beginning of the 60-year cycles according 
to Brennand, "Hindu Astron.", p. 7. 

B. C. 2717, China. — Supposed beginning of the 60-year cycles. 
Souciet. (See below, year 2337). 

B. C. 2710, India. — Hindu re-incarnation reckoning backward 
from the Augustan date of Salivahana. Table B. 

B. C. 2697, China. — Beginning of the 60-year cycles. The Pan- 
dits. See A. D. 1804. 

B. C. 2687, China. — Reign of the mythical Ti-hoang, orHoang-ti. 
The 60-year cycles "invented". Du Halde. (See below, 2627.) 

B. C. 2637, China. — ^ra of the pretended incarnation of Fo-hi, 
according to Rev. C. Gutzlaff. This sera was revived and legalised 
by the Emperor Kienlong, A. D. 1735-95. Gibbon, II, 575, n. It 
commences on the winter solstice. Cf. the Pandits' "Chron". 
According to Stokvis the Jovian cycles of China and Japan com- 
menced this year. 

B. C. 2627, China. — Sixty-first year of Ti-hoang, or Hoang-ti. 
The 60-year cycles "established," according to Freret, who, how- 
ever, makes the 6ist year agree with B. C. 2636. See B. C. 1965. 

B. C. 2540, India. — According to Higgins, Anacal. I, 251, this 
year the Sun entered the sign of Aries, from Taurus; the Indians, 
hitherto of one religion, split into Brahmins and Buddhists; and the 



78 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

latter were driven out of India. This is as bad as the astrologers. 
There was no 12 sign zodiac with Taurus and Aries at this remote 
period. The entire scheme is fanciful. See B. C. 380. 

B. C. 2474, China. — ^ra of Yao, or Jove, who divided the year 
and regulated the calendar. The Hebrew name for Jove is also Yao. 

B. C. 2448, Caslimir. — Epoch of the chronicles called Rajahtar- 
angini. Prof. Wilson, "Asiatic Researches," vol. XV; Pococke, p. 131. 

B. C. 2397, China. — February. Chinese asra, as computed by 
certain of the Jesuit missionaries. (Prinsep). 

B. C. 2357, China. — Incarnation and Investiture of the divine 
Yao. Du Halde. This is feigned to have occurred at the winter sol- 
stice. McDowell. Higgins Anacal. I, 330, contends that Yao, Jove, 
Jupiter, etc., are the same. In such case the divine Yao was of a 
much later period; the planet Jupiter, as such, being, as yet, unknown 
and the ancients worshipping only planets. 

B. C. 2337, China. — Nineteenth year of Yao. The 60-year 
cycles "commenced". Du Halde, Hist. China, I, 282. This is the 
Chinese ?era used throughout his history. Other Jesuits reckoned 
from 2397. Prinseps. See A. D. 1024. 

B. C. 2256, India.— Incarnation of Buddha. Col. Tod. Winter 
solstice. 

B. C. 2235, Assyria. — Incarnation of Bel-Issus, or the Lord 
Issus. (Clinton; Vernal equinox?). Hales begins this oera with B. C. 
2254. (See below, years 2064, 1406 and 1390). 

B. C. 2234, Chaldea. — First year of Chaldean astronomical 
records found on tablets of baked clay. (Rawlinson). This date is 
1903 years before Alexander visited Babylon, B. C. 331, and is from 
Callisthenes. Freret, Mem, Acad. Inscript. XVI, 205, prefers B. C. 
1532. These records were undoubtedly concocted at a later age, to 
support the myth of Bel-Issus. See B. C. 2235; also, "Middle Ages 
Revisited," ch. I, n. 15. 

B. C. 2218, China. — Third cycle, second year. Accession of 
Ta-Yu, first emperor of Hia dynasty; and the so-called first "cer- 
tain " Chinese date. 

B, C. 2163, China. — Incarnation of Yao, according to Bunsen, 
III, 388. 

B. C. 2157, Chaldea. — Epoch of Chaldean "historical" jera. 
Jules Oppert, cited by Gustav Oppert, p. 331. 

B. C. 2064, India. — Brahmo-Buddhic incarnation of lesChrishna, 
evidently invented after the Mahabharata wars. The proper date is 
B. C. 2052, q. V. 



.ERAS. 79 

B. C. 2064, Assyria. — Incarnation of Bel-Issus, or Bel-Esus. 
According to Eusebius, "Chronol." I, 12, "Castor reckoned 1280 
years from the first Ninus to a second Ninus, or Nin-Ies, successor 
to Sardanapalus ". This would throw the sera of the second Ninus 
into the 8th century B, C. and the sera of the first Ninus into the 
2ist century B. C. , making it coincide with the sera of Bel-Esus. 
The whole mythos is Oriental, astrological, and pre-dated. See B. C. 
1406 and 1390. 

B. C. 2064, Assyria. ^ — Approximate sera assigned by Assyriolo- 
gists to Sargon I, who was evidently merely a mythos of the Sun 
worship. He is said to have been born miraculously and in some 
obscure place, his father being unknown and his mother a person of 
royal descent, by whom he was deposited in an ark of reeds and 
bitumen and left to the care of the River. He was carried by the 
stream to the dwelling of a ferryman, who reared him as his own son 
until the time came for the disclosure of his true rank, when he was 
acknowledged by the Assyrians as "The constituted king," (such 
being the meaning of his name), and he took his seat upon "the throne 
of his ancestors." His palace was at " Agane, a suburb of Sippara. " 
. . . "There was born to him a son named Naram-Sin. " All this 
and more of the same sort appears in the ninth edition of the Encyc. 
Brit. art. "Babylon," wherein Sargon is treated as an historical 
character "about B. C. 2000" who possesed a library and a 
catalogue. His son, Naram-Sin, is overthrown in battle by Kham- 
muragas, another ' ' historical " character who has left us an inscription 
which is now in the Louvre! After the incredibly remote dates 
which the Assyriologists have thrust upon us, we dare not wonder at 
libraries or inscriptions 4000 years old, but we certainly have a right 
to draw the line of credulity at Naram-Sin, in whom we clearly 
recognize the fourth incarnation of Vishnu ; the mythical spawn of a 
Brahminical astrological conceit, here smuggled by ignorance into 
the domain of history. Cesnola found a cylinder in Cyprus bearing 
the name of Nara-Sin, son of Sharrukin, "who knew not his father". 
This last is evidently Varuguin, the third incarnation of Vishnu. 
Andrew Laing, "Human Origins"; M. A. R. c. I, n. i. 

B. C. 2064, Argos. — Incarnation of Cres (him of the Eight 
Curetes, or Danoi). Legendary sera of Dan-aus or Dan-Ies in Argos. 
(Dhanaus was the Indian name for the zodiacal sign of the Archer). 
This sera is assigned, by Herodotus, to Bacchus. Euterpe, 145. 

B. C. 2064, Attica. — Censorinus reckons from the Deluge of 
Ogyges to the first Olympiad (Olympiadem primam) "about 600 



8o A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

years." The first Olympiads were celebrated at Athens B. C. 1406, 
q. V. If to this is added one divine year, which answers to "about 
600 years," we have B. C. 2064 for the Deluge. 

B. C. 2052, India. — Birth of les Chrishna, or Buddha, (pre- 
Augustan date) the third avatar before that of Salivahana, B. C. 
78. Table B. 

B. C. 2016, Greece. — Anno Mundi Eusebiano, as used in his 
chronology. Epoch, at midsummer. Clinton; Fasti Romani, II, 
217. This sera was also used by Hieronymous. It is probably 
couched in the Caesarian sera and should be B. C. 2064. 

B. C. 1965, China. — Conjectural original jera of the supposed 
incarnation of Hoang-ti, the second messiah of the ancient Chinese 
mythological scheme, the first being Fo-hi with eight disciples, and 
the third being Yao, with twelve disciples; Hoang-ti having had ten. 
For Fohi see B. C. 2637 and for Yao see B. C. 1311. This year, 
B. C. 1965, is that given by Hwang-fu-mi, the Chinese astrologer 
(B. C. 300, for the incarnation of Yao, which in fact, that is to say, in 
the mythological scale, was one divine year later than Hoang-ti. (The 
Chinese divine year was probably 654 common years. See Chap. VIII). 
Hoang-ti was miraculously born; ere he left the breast he could 
speak. To the sweetness of an infant he united the penetration and 
judgment of a sage. He commenced to reign when he was only 
twelve years of age. He invented the cycle which reconciles the 
ancient divisions of Ten with the later divisions of Twelve ; he erected 
temples; instituted Ninths to support the priesthood; encouraged 
agriculture and the culture of the silk-worm; he introduced the com- 
pass, abacus, decimal system, knife-money, uniform weights and 
measures, etc. One of his disciples, Chao-hao, suppressed a religious 
insurrection; introduced church music; established the nine classes, 
five of whom were to govern the five guilds of artisans and the 
others to preside over tillage and — like the Roman emperors of a 
later period — regulate the manners of the people. Another disciple, 
Tchuen-hio, regulated the mines (this is probably meant to include 
money); joined the crown to the pontificate; extirpated heretics; 
reformed the canon law ; regulated the choice of animals for sacrifice; 
reorganized the priesthood; and altered the calendar, beginning the 
year "on the first day of the month in which the Sun should be 
nearest the fifteenth degree of Aquarius." Du Halde. All this, 
except the Ten disciples, is clearly of a post-Jovian and post-Buddhic 
date. See B. C. 2687 and 2627. 



iERAS. 8l 

B. C. 1913, India. — Erroneous aera of the Calijoga, computed by 
Hales. See B. C. 3102. 

B. C. 1905, India. — Erroneous sera of the Calijoga, computed by 
Hales. See B, C. 3102. 

B. C. 1897, Judea. — Miraculous conception of Sarai, who is mar- 
ried to Abram, her half-brother, (Gen. XX, 20). When Abram is 99 
years old and Sarai is 90, they converse familiarly with God (Gen. 
XXVII and XXVIII), who thereupon promises Abram a child, to be 
born exactly a year later. (Gen. XXVII, 21). That a year in this 
place originally meant ten months, is deducible from the Chaldean 
word Sar, which, says Rev. Dr. Greswell, is the root of saros, and 
therefore also of Sarai, or Sarah, meaning ten. This son, the miracu- 
lous issue of the Creator and Sarai, (Gen. XXI, i, 2) was called 
Isaac. Abram was afterwards ordered to sacrifice this son and he 
obeyed; but at the critical moment his hand was arrested by the 
Creator and Isaac was saved. Abram lived to the age of 175 and 
Sarai 127 years. Most of the details of this mythos are of Hindu 
origin. Abram or Bram is an impersonation of the Creator; Isaac 
is the Hindu sun-god les-aac, which is still the name of one of the 
Hindu months; the marriage of brother and sister was a distinguish- 
ing characteristic of the Oriental, and Egyptian, and even of the 
Peruvian incarnations; the full year, or ten months, of gestation, is 
another one; the order for the destruction of the divine child; his 
imminent peril; and his providential escape from impending death — 
these and other features of the story — are evidently oriental and 
astrological ; and they cannot be accepted as history. It is not diffi- 
cult to recognise in them a distorted account of the ninth incarnation 
of Brahma, which fell due B. C. 1864, just s^ years after the date 
assigned by the scriptural chronologers to the conception of Sarai, 
See Table A. 

B. C. 1869, Argos. — ^ra of Inachus, the reputed founder of the 
kingdom of Argos, in the Peloponnesus, "Betwixt the 2120th and 
2150th year of the World." Bell's Pantheon. As Bell's Anno Mundi 
was B. C. 4000 this would fix the sera of Inachus about B. C. 1869. 
Inachus was one of the names of Bacchus, whose cult is asserted to 
have been introduced into Argos from Crete. The Inachia were 
Cretan festivals in honour of this divinity. The date assigned to 
Inachus by Bell is probably the invention of a long subsequent age, 

B. C. 1864, India. — Ninth avatar of Brahma, or Vishnu. See 
Table A, chap. VI. 

B. C. 1847, Egypt. — Phoenix .^ra, or first (original) Julian cal- 



82 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

endar, or calendar of 365^ days to the year, beginning Thoth ist, 
or Nov. i8th, B. C. 1848; afterwards altered to Tybi 7th or March 
24th, B. C. 1847, from which date its author calls it the Epoch of 
the sphere of Mazzaroth. Rev. Edwd. Greswell, F. C. , I, 552. 
As Dr. Greswell failed to observe the change from the year of ten to 
that of twelve months, in Egypt and elsewhere, the seras he deduces, 
when they are older than the eighth century B. C. , are only of liter- 
ary interest and have no historical value. 

B. C 1786, India. — Augustan date of the Brahminical les 
Chrishna, the ninth avatar of Brahma, afterwards called lesnu or 
Vishnu; this being the termination of his manvantara. This was an- 
ciently regarded as the final metamorphosis of Vishnu, when the 
world would be destroyed and the human race brought to judgment, 
a prediction whose failure must have greatly weakened the founda- 
tions of the Brahminical system. The Banians, though they accepted 
this system, yet believed in a tenth manvantara, that of Kalpi, who 
was to appear in future and whose zodion is a winged horse, three of 
whose feet rest apon the earth, while the fourth paws ihe air. When 
this foot descends upon our planet (time not fixed), the end will 
come. Noel, "Die. Fable." See B. C. 1332 and 1315. The sys- 
tem of nine (or ten) incarnations has been greatly extended by the 
Brahmo-Buddhists. 

B. C. 1650, India. — Remotest probable sera of the Mahabharata 
wars. Pococke, 149-51, prefers B. C. 1480; Wilson says B. C. 1430; 
Wilford says B. C. 1370; Prinseps, " Useful Tables," 217, says B. C. 
1367; Robertson's "India," p. 329, says "before 2000 B. C. ;" but 
this is inadmissible. See below, year 1430. 

B. C. 1650, India. — At some indefinite period the 60-year cycles 
of Yao (China) were adopted in Egypt. Martin, " Hist. Sinica," p. 
14; Bunsen's " Egypt," III, 385, 71. For reasons given above and in 
"Middle Ages," Appendix P., n. 14, it is believed that these cycles 
were not actually employed in India until long after the Mahabharata 
wars. Their employment in Egypt must be assigned to a very much 
later date. 

B. C. 1690, India. — Epoch of the "Line of the Rishis," con- 
stellation of Ursa-Major, commencing with the first of Magha, as 
fixed by observation at that time, according to Brennand, "Hindu 
Astronomy," p. 82. For further information on this subject see chap. 
VIII herein. 

B. C 1528, Egypt. — ^ra of Busiris, a king or lieutenant under 
and contemporaneous with Osiris, according to Orosius, who fixes 



^RAS. 83 

the sera of Busiris at 775 years before the foundation of Rom.e 
Eusebius fixes the same sera at about 700 years before the founda- 
tion of Rome. On the other hand, Eratosthenes, cited in Strabo, 
declares that there never was a king or tyrant called Busiris. The 
name is probably a variant of Hesiris, Osiris, etc. See B. C. 1235. 
The asra is anachronical. 

B. C. 1506, Athens.— The image of the Mother of the Gods is 
brought from Mount Cybele. The Parian marbles. This is a Scy- 
thian date, probably connected with Targitaus, Tages, Taygetus, 
etc., and adopted by the Athenians during the Solonic period. See 

1495- 

B. C. 1495, Scythia. — The first king of the Scythians was Tar- 
gitaus, who according to Herodotus lived "just a thousand years" 
before Darius Hystaspes invaded their country. As the last-named 
event occurred in B. C. 495, this would fix the sera of Targitaus in 
B. C. 1495. Targitaus is evidently a name of Buddha. "As one 
of the Tathagates he preached to all mankind the mystery of suffer- 
ing." Trubner's "Oriental Record," 1889, No. 243, p. 5, The 
Etruscans, whose Divine Years occurred in B. C. 1474, 816, etc., 
worshipped a Divine Child whose brow was adorned with the Sacred 
Ram's horns and whose name was Tages. F. A. David, •' Antiqui- 
tes Etrusques," V, pi. 57. There is a possible connection between 
these two divinities ; also with the cult of Tay-getus, Son of Jupiter 
in Laconia, because Targitaus was also the Son of Jupiter, the Su- 
preme God. Herodotus, Melpomene, 5. In Terpsichore, 3, the 
same author says, that the Getse, or Scythians, were, next after the 
Indians, the greatest nation on earth. Diodorus Siculus makes a 
similar remark. Pococke proves that they colonised Greece and 
Etruria. 

B. C. 1480, India. — Mahabharata Wars. Pococke, 149-51. 

B. C. 1451,Judea. — Nativity of Moses, 1571; promulgates the 
Ten Commandments, 1494; ascends bodily to heaven, 1454. Haydn. 
See B. C. 509. 

B. C. 1448, India. — Erroneous date of the Calijoga. Rev. Wm. 
Hales, "Chronology." See B. C. 3102. 

B. C. 14f32, Candia. — Iron found on Mt. Ida by Jasius and the 
Dactyles. The Parian marbles. But see B. C. 1406 and 1394. 

B. C. 1430, India. — Mahabharata sera. Prof. Wilson, Analysis 
of the Puranas, As. Jour. XIII, 81. Pococke, 149. See B. C. 1650, 

B. C. 1430, Bypt. — Conjectural sera of the tablets of Tel-el- 
Amarna, according to Dr. Sam'l Birch, in "Records of the Past," 



84 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

New Series, II, 57. This date is based upon the fancied resemblance 
of Nahrima, mentioned in one of the tablets and Chushanrishathaim, 
in Judges, III, 8, a clue whose little worth is admitted by Dr. Birch 
himself, op. cit. , III, 55. These tablets constituted part of the offi- 
cial records at Thebes, whence they were removed to Tel-el-Amarna, 
a place midway between Minieh and Siout, on the east bank of the 
Nile. They are stamped with the cuneiform letter, in the Baby- 
lonian language, which hitherto has only been imperfectly mastered 
and translated. Many of the expressions in them point to a date 
several centuries lower than that conjectured by Dr. Birch. They 
were discovered in A. D. 1887. See sera of the Hycsos, B. C. 1106. 

B. C. 1426, India. — Year when the Equinoctial point V. E. was 
in Crittica (one of the Pleiads). Crittica nov/ marks the third, 
whereas formerly it marked and gave its name to the first, nach- 
shatra. Colebrooke. This was a period of great activity in Hindu 
astronomy. It was also the period when Mercury, Venus, Mars and 
Jupiter were in occultation, B. C. 1424-6. Brennand. Laplace ap- 
pears to prefer fixing the period of astronomical activity in B. C. 
1491. At all events there is a substantial agreement between 
Jones, Bailly, Laplace, Colebrooke, Bentley and Burgess that in the 
15th century B. C. the Hindus were acquainted with the equable 
year, the nodical cycle, the Precession of the Equinoxes and the pe- 
riod of Jupiter. These phenomena form the astronomical bases of 
the astrology of the Hindu les Chrishna, the Egyptian Hes-iris, the 
Greek Jasius and the Roman Janus. 

B. C. 140G, Assyria. — Incarnation of Nin-Ies, or Ninus, prob- 
ably invented during the eighth to fifth century B. C. See B. C. 
2064. Ninus was foretold by prophets; his celestial father was les; 
his putative father was Belus of the royal line of les; his virgin 
mother was Semiramis, although the Rev. Alex. Hislop says her 
name was Rhaah, or Rhea, the Gazing Mother; his star was the 
Messianic; he was born at the Vernal equinox amidst flowers and 
the sounds of heavenly music; he was recognised as the Messiah by 
the seers or astrologers; his head was surrounded by a nimbus of 
light; he performed numerous miracles; his favorite disciple, of 
whom he had ten, afterwards 12, was Argon or Arjon; and after sav- 
ing the world from sin he was persecuted and crucified to death at 
Babylon on the winter solstice; descended to hell; rose again after 
three days and nights; and finally ascended bodily to heaven. His 
principal sacrament was baptism, his epigraphic symbols were the + 
and f and his zodion was the Lamb. The sra and worship of Ni- 



^RAS. 85 

nus, like that of Belus, were probably instituted many centuries 
after the date ascribed to him on the monuments. 

B. C. 1406, Crete. — ^ra of Jasius, Lord of the Ten Incarna- 
tions of the Sun. These "incarnations" (his followers) were after- 
wards called the Ten Dactyles of Mount Ida, the inventors of iron 
and founders of the pentaeteris or five-year Olympiads, sometimes 
called Panathenaea, mentioned by Diodorus and by Plutarch in The- 
seus. Diodorus, V, 4, says that the Dactyles "practiced sacred rites 
and mysteries," and were "adored and worshipped as Gods." The 
years were of ten months each. Potter, Ant. Gr. I, 507. Hence 
the pentaeteris were celebrated every 50 months. This year, 1406, 
was exactly one astrological cycle (658 years) before the incarnation 
of Tiglath-pil-Esar II, the Nebo-Nazaru of the Chaldeans. Cen- 
sorinus; Noel, Die. de la Fable; Townsend, Die. Dates, p. 499. 
The Ten Dactyles were preceded, or else followed by the Nine Cu- 
retes, priests of Cybele. Diodorus says the Dactyles were followed 
by the Curetes, but as both were imaginary, and only relate to mat- 
ters of belief, the order of precedence is only important when it re- 
lates to the history of the belief. The five-year Olympiads were 
"revived" by Iphitus, B. C. 884, q. v. Pausanias, Eliacs, V. 4, 8; 
Potter's Ant. Gr. I, 507. The names of the Ten Dactyles partly 
from Pausanias and partly from Strabo were Jasius, Hercules, Peo- 
neus, Epimedes, Idas, Carybas, Hercules (Mercury?), Salaminus, 
Damnaneus and Acrnon. Hercules is repeated, while Mercury is 
omitted. Pausanias names Pyrrhicus as one of the Curetes. 

B. C. 1406, Attica. — Eleusinian ^ra. Myth of the Thracian 
(Scythic) king Eric-Theos, Eric-Theus, or Eric-thonius, Son of Vul- 
can and Athena, mother of gods. Union of the (Twelve) states of 
Attica. "The Emolpides, or descendants of the High Buddha 
Priest, were now appointed to the administration of the holy rites." 
Pococke, 270. Cf. Jamieson, 40; Strabo, Geog. VII, VIII, and X. 
Greswell, Kal. H., IV, 11. " Eu-mol-pides" was afterwards con- 
verted into " Eumolpus, the first hierophant." The scheme is as- 
trological and anachronical. The Eleusinian festival was originally 
held on the winter solstice and, after the Seleucidan asra, on the au- 
tumnal equinox. It was observed down to the year A. D. 396. 
Townsend; Pausanias, Eliacs, V, 4, 8; Potter's Ant. Gr. I, 507. See 
B. C. 1346, 1219 and 776. Townsend (Die. Dates) says that Eric- 
thonius introduced silver into Attica. This is a feature of the mes- 
sianic myth, which ascribes all good things to the Messiah. 

B. C. 1406, Attica.— Greswell. Kal. Hell. I, pref., alludes to 



S6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

" the Athenian solemnity " of B. C. 1342. Add the 63 or 64 years 
dropped from the Roman calendar and we have B.C. 1406, the sera 
of Jasius and the Eleusinia. 

B. C. 1406, Bgypt. — Deification of Ousurt Esen, sovereign-pon- 
tiff, Xllth dynasty. Perrotand Chipiez, p. 335. The date is gained 
approximately by allowing an average of 12 or 14 years to the reign 
of each of the kings mentioned by Bunsen in his correction of Mane- 
tho's dynasties. It is fixed precisely in B. C. 1406, because that is 
the christian date of the Assyrian and Greek incarnations. (Table 
C) Bunsen, by allowing S3 years to each reign, carries Ousurt- 
Esen back to the 24th century B. C, but there is nothing to justify 
such a computation. 

B. C. 1394, Scythia. — Marina, queen of the Amazons, over- 
runs Cilicia, Syria, Arabia and Egypt, in which last-named country 
she makes a treaty with Horus, the miraculous offspring of Osiris 
and Isis. On her way to Asia, Marina worships the Mother of God 
at Samothrace, and grants freedom to Cilicia. She builds many 
cities, including Mitylene in Lesbos. Upon her return from Egypt 
she passed through Phrygia and settled at Marina, a place which she 
named, on the river Caicus, between Pergamus and Larissa. Here 
she was attacked by the Thracians, who killed her and drove her 
army into Libya, where it perished. Diodorus Siculus. This is a 
Scythian legend connected with the worship of the Matrem Deorum, 
which T-acitus observed was practiced by the Scythian tribes of the 
Baltic and of which very ancient traces will be found scattered all 
through Scythia, from Bactria, westward to Scandinavia and Thrace. 
The year above attached to the legend of Marina is the Hindu date 
of the birth of les Chrishna, the first Buddha. (Table B.) 

B. C. 1394, India. — Hindu re-incarnation, reckoning backward 
from Salivahana. (Table C.) Probable period of the discovery of 
iron and steel in the Orient. See B. C. 1432 for a pretended earlier 
discovery in Candia. 

B. C. 1391, India. — Parasara's astronomical observations go 
back to this date. Rev. Ch. Pritchard ; who also assigns the Vedas and 
the Mahabharata wars to the same period. Parasara's observations 
were probably designed to commence with the birth of les Chrishna, 
or the "First" Buddha." (See above, year 1394.) The three years' 
variation are explained in " Middle Ages Revisited," ch. VIII and 
App. S. See B. C. 1181 and B. C. 576. 

B. C. 1390, Assyria. — Incarnation of Belus, or Bel-Issus. (See 
above, years 2235 ^"-^ 2064). A small stone cylinder in the British 



^RAS. 87 

Museum is ascribed to Budi-ela, "king of Assyria," and is dated by 
the Museum autliorities "B. C. 1350." All the dates connected with 
the worship of Belus are anachronical. The cult of Belus is prob- 
ably not older than the 12th century, B. C. This messiah was 
variously called Belus, Bel, Bel-Esus, Bala, and Baal. His coming 
was foretold in the sacred books of Chaldea. The name of his 
celestial father is given by the Greek writers as Jasus, or else Acr- 
isius. His putative father was les ; his virgin mother was Semiramis, 
or Astarte. His birthplace, in Baalbec, was indicated by the 
Messianic star which stood over it. He' was born on the vernal 
equinox (the festival of beltane) to the accompaniment of flowers 
and heavenly music. He was recognized as the Expected One by the 
astrologers, (belephantes). Accompanied by his faithful disciple, 
Oannes, one often, he performed many miracles, which were recorded 
in the now lost sacred scriptures of his native county. For preach- 
ing strange doctrines he was crucified in his 33d year, on the winter 
solstice; descended to hell; whence he rose again and ascended 
bodily to heaven. His principal sacrament was baptism, both by 
water and fire; his epigraphic symbol, the cross, which appears on 
numerous Assyrian and Chaldean cylinders ; and his zodions were the 
Bull and Ram (belier). Many remains of this cult still exist in the 
popular customs of the older states of Asia Minor and Europe; 
some perhaps in the British Isles. Among several seras ascribed to 
Belus, ranging from B. C. 2064 to B. C. 1390, the lowest one has been 
selected, as being the most plausible, though even this one is prob- 
ably too ancient, 

B. C. 1370, India. — End of the Mahabharata wars. Col. Wilford; 
Pococke, 149 n. 

B. C. 1370, India. — Erroneous sera of the Calijoga. Rev. Wm. 
Hales. See B. C. 3102. 

B. C. 1366, India. — " Earliest Buddha," according to Prinseps, 
"Useful Tables," p. 164. " Brahminical aera of Buddha," accord- 
ing to Asiatic Researches, vol. II. This is the ' ' First Buddha " of the 
Hindu pantheon, and there are many indications that the date is more 
or less correct, though the mythos evidently belongs to les Chrishna. 
This Messiah was foretold by prophets; he was the son of the Holy 
Spirit and the Virgin Maia; he was born in the village or town of 
Rajagriha; was recognised and worshipped by the Magi and by kings; 
the messianic star stood over the place of his nativity; a brilliant 
nimbus of light surrounded the holy infants' head; his complexion 
was black; his hair woolly; he was prematurely wise, and as he grew 



88 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Up, his doctrines, embodied in the Puranas, were promulgated by ten 
disciples. Though he came to reform mankind and save the world, 
he was himself persecuted by the reigning king, who caused him to 
be crucified at the age of S3 years. To judge the dead, Buddha 
descended to the nether world where he remained three days and 
nights. Then he arose and ascended bodily to heaven. His sacra- 
ments were the eucharist and baptism; his epigraphic symhols were 
the cross and svastica; his zodion was the Bull; and his images are 
represented in a sitting posture, cross-legged. 

B. C. 1350, India. — "Modern computation" of the date when 
the vernal equinox corresponded with the first point of Cartica; the 
Hindu date being 1426. Brennand's "Hindu Astronomy," London, 
1896, p. 54. See Chapter IX herein. 

B. C. 1350, iEgypt. — First ^ra of les-iris (or Osiris) and Isis. 
Epoch, ist Thoth, then the 22nd July, agreeing with the heliacal 
rising of Sothis in Heliopolis at that period. (We would prefer B. C. 
1250 to B. C. 1350). The orthography of les-iris is so given by 
Hellanicus, who visited Egypt during the 5th century B. C. (Plu- 
tarch, " Isis and Osiris," 34). Sothis, called by the Greeks Sirius, 
was the star of Heavenly Conception; sothis meaning conception. 
Isis was both the Wife and Mother of the Sun; les-iris was the 
progeny, his name signifying Son of God. The names of the twelve 
months of the year cannot be traced higher than this date. Rev. 
Dr. Greswell, Fasti Cath., Ill, 138, 170, 193; Kal. Hell, IV., 
131-3. Dr. Greswell may have safely extended this last observation 
another astrological cycle of 658 j^ears later. The names of the 
twelve months do not appear to be older than the 7th century B. C, 
and all western monuments which mention them and profess to be of 
an older date must be regarded with suspicion. The 12 signs (and 
therefore inferentially the 12 months) are ascribed to Anaximander 
of Miletus, B. C. 610-547. Sir Wm. Jones declared that the Greeks 
and Arabians derived their zodiacs from the Indians. So did the 
Egyptians. The Twelve months are distinctly Buddhic and are cer- 
tainly not older than the second Buddhic asra. See B. C. 692. Some 
writers say that the celestial father of Osiris was Ammon, or Amen; 
others say Seb, or Set; others again, that his putative father was 
Menuis. His mother's name is variously given as Isis, Neith, or 
Nout, and Marionymous, or the Thousand-named. His natal star 
was Sirius; his natal day was at one period fixed at the winter sol- 
stice. Plutarch in ancient times and Haliburton in modern, (F. D. 
30, 32) fixed the resurrection of Osiris in our November. These variant 



dates may be due to the change from a ten to a twelve months year, 
or to some other alterations of the calendar. Osiris was sun-rayed; 
his complexion was black, and his hair was woolly. He was included 
in a slaughter of innocents ordered by Typhon, from which he of 
course escaped. His legitimacy was proved by numerous miracles; 
some of his doctrines appear in the Book of the Dead ; the number of 
his disciples was 10, afterwards 12; he was crucified on the vernal 
equinox (probably an altered date ;) he descended to hell, where he 
remained three days and nights to judge the dead, and he rose again 
and ascended bodily to heaven. His principal sacrament was bap- 
tism; his emblems were the " Latin" cross, the crux ansata and the 
Christian monogram, while his zodion was the Bull or Calf (Apis). His 
name is variously written Osiris, Hes-iris, les-iris and Em-esa. les- 
iris (from Hellenicus) is probably correct. Em-esa as the equivalent 
of Crisis is given by the Edinburgh Review, July, 1893. 

B. C. 1346, Greece. — Panathenaic calendar of Ericthonius, July 
21. Greswell, F. C. I, 553. "Panathenaic" is doubtful. 

B. C. 1336, India. — First Buddhic sera, according to Abul-Fazl. 
The Pandits' "Chron." See B. C. 1366. 

B. C. 1334, Troy. — Fall of Troy, oldest date; but see B. C. 1292 
and 1248. 

B. C. 1332, India. — Approximate sera of Maryamma, wife of Jam- 
adagni, a village carpenter, and the virgin mother of les Chrishna, 
the ninth incarnation of lesnu, or Vishnu. The name of this di- 
vinity is written Maryamma by Oppert and Mariatala by Noel. The 
latter regards her as the mother of Parasurama; the former as the 
sister of les Chrishna. Oppert explains that amma means mother; 
hence Maryamma means Mother Mary. She is also called Gana- 
gamma, or Ganga-gamma, Mother of God, and has many other 
names. She is worshipped all over India, especially at Canaanur, in 
Trichinopoly, Chrishna's birthplace. Annnal festivals to her honour 
are celebrated with great solemnity on the seventh day of the light 
fortnight of the month of Sravana. This brings the beginning of 
the festival to the day before Ourgati Tirounal, or birth-day of les 
Chrishna, which day, the use of a lunar calendar, has shifted about 
three weeks back from Aswin ist. The festival is called Sitalasap- 
tami and lasts seven days. At these festivals Maryamma is carried 
about on a gorgeous car with the same pomp as are the statues of 
Vishnu and lesora, the latter being the god with the Bleeding 
Heart. " On cdllbre sa fete avcc bcaucotcp de solemnity, et on le mine 
en procession sur un char avcc autant de pompe que les grands dieux 



90 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Vishmi et Ixora. " (Noel. ) Ordinarily the sacrifices consist of buffalo 
bulls, heifers, or black rams, but there have been occasions when 
human victims were immolated, by being persuaded to throw them- 
selves under the car, similar to the practice of Juggernaut. Until 
forbidden by the British authorities, hook-swinging, as an act of pi- 
ety and penitence, by her worshippers, was common; and in spite of 
the legal interdict, a sacrifice of this character occurred recently in 
Colavandan. Maryamma is also worshipped daily in the form of a 
black stone called Baddukal, which is regarded as a sort of house- 
hold deity among the Indian villagers, each of whom possesses one. 
The worship of Maryamma anciently became so popular among the 
Sudra class that the Brahmins, who were unwilling to kneel to the 
same divinity as their inferiors, reduced her caste by circulating the 
following legend: Maryamma was the principal one of the nine sak- 
tis (graces) and was originally placed by the supreme deity in com- 
mand of the elements, an empire which she could retain only so long 
as she remained unchanged. When her commerce with the grand- 
overs (winged spirits of the air; aurge; sylphs) was discovered, Ja- 
madagni persuaded his son to deprive his Holy Mother of life. The 
request was obeyed; but Parasurama's grief for his mother was 
so intense that his putative father permitted him to recall the god- 
dess to life. She was accordingly resurrected, to the great joy of 
Parasurama (or les Chrishna), who, however, in joining the decapi- 
tated head of his mother to a human form selected the body of a 
Sudra woman; so that Maryamma was no longer holy enough for 
the worship of high caste Brahmins. The Sudra class make up for 
this by placing Maryamma above the supreme deity. While the 
Brahmins insist that she is now only a goddess to invoke heaven 
against diseases and especially the small-pox, the Pariahs venerate 
her and her infant son as the most exalted of all the divinities, '•'■Les 
Parias partagent leurs ado7-ations entre sa viere et lid . . . qui la 
mettent au dessiis de Bieu." (Noel.) Her symbol is a branch of the 
margosa, which in all cases of sickness is suspended over the bed of 
the sufferer. The cocoanut, which is thrown and broken on the 
threshold of the temple; offerings of myrr and frakincense; the 
wood of the Nimb tree, upon which les Chrishna suffered; and the 
custom of treading on embers and walking through bonfires; are also 
peculiar to her worship. She is the only deity to whom salted fish 
and other cooked dishes are offered. " She removes the sin of those 
who address her with the holy five letters, pancasara." Like the 
Greek Medusa, the hair of Maryamma is made of twisted serpents, 



^RAS. 91 

these animals being an object of sacerdotal significance to the Hin- 
dus. (So were they to the Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Ro- 
mans, as witness the stories of the conceptions of their various in- 
carnations). The rites of Maryamma have undoubtedly been altered 
since their first inception. The length of the annual festival, which 
is now seven days, was probably nine days in more ancient times. 
The worship of Maryamma can be traced from India into Asia Mi- 
nor, with the Urtuki Turcomans or Venetians, of Pontus and Bith- 
ynia, who, many centuries before our sera, raised a shrine to her at 
Piscenus in Mariandynia, a province which was doubtless named 
after this goddess. As in India, she was worshipped at Piscenus in 
the form of a black stone; probably an sereolite. This sacred stone 
having been captured and removed to Elam by a King of Assyria, 
was afterwards restored by Assur-bani-pal, in B. C. 645, q. v. We 
next find the worship of Maryamma utilized by the deified Cyrus of 
Persia, who bestowed her revered name upon his own mother, a de- 
vice which was imitated by Alexander the Great, who conferred up- 
on his mother the sacred name of Olympia. See B. C. 533. The 
Tauri, probably related to the lesyges, established the worship of 
Maryamma in the Crimea and the vicinity. See B. C. 658. At a 
later period this venerable goddess was removed from Piscenus to 
Rome, where she became an object of profound adoration to the 
pious, especially to those of the gentler sex. See B. C. 205. The 
black stone of the Caaba, in Mecca, appears to be related to the 
same worship. The Matrem Deorum subsequently made her way 
into Gaul (see B. C. 470) and the Gothic countries of the Baltic 
(Tacitus), in all of which places she was the especial divinity of the 
poor and afflicted. Gustav Oppert, op. cit. ; Fr. Fawcett, "Festi- 
vals to Village Goddesses" in Jour. Anthrop. Soc. of Bombay, II, 
164-224; and the other authorities above cited. Mr. Fawcett's ac- 
count includes the significant circumstance that the services at the 
annual festival to Maryamma have to be conducted by a carpenter. 
Mr. Oppert copied all of Fawcett's account verbatim except the sen- 
tence which mentions the carpenter. 

B. C. 1332, India. — Birth of les Chrishna, the ninth incarnation 
of lesnu, or Vishnu. Some authors say B. C. 1315. (See B. C. 
1786.) The name is spelt by the Abbe Raynal as Christna. The 
name of the sacred river of India upon which his principal temple 
stands is spelt Kristna. This is also the name given to his images 
in the Musee Guimet. Father Sonnerat, " Voy. aux Indes," I, 30, 
says it is written in the various idioms of India as follows: Crisnen, 



92 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Criten, Crixnou, and Quichena, all of these words meaning Mack. 
Noel gives Kistner for another variant. Crixnou is probably the 
origin of the Greek Ischenou, while Quichena is that of the Roman 
Quirinus, from which comes the existing Quirinal. The advent of 
Chrishna was foretold in the sacred books; also by Nared, the astrol- 
oger. His celestial father is variously called les-saca and Brahma; 
his putative father, Josa, Jesa, Nanda and Jamadagni. Some au- 
thorities say that the latter was a carpenter; others, a shepherd. He 
was of the royal line of Yadu or Yudava. Chrishna's virgin moth- 
er's name is variously given as Maryamma, Maritala, Mai, Lakshmi, 
Decki, Devaci, Adita and Vasudeva. The Messianic star indicated 
the place of Chrishna's birth, which took place at Canaanur, or 
Mathura (Brahmin) or Gorakpore (Buddhic), and on the winter sol- 
stice. He was born in a cave, among cowherds. The nativity was 
ushered in with flowers and music. He was recognized by the Magi 
and presented with gifts of sandal wood and perfumes. At the period 
of the nativity his putative father was called away to pay the taxes. 
Chrishna's head shone with a divine effulgence; his complexion was 
black and his hair woolly. A slaughter of the innocents was ordered 
by King Kansa with the object of destroying the infant Messiah, 
who, however, escaped. He was transfigured and performed many 
miracles. The doctrines which he preached are contained in the 
Vedas and Puranas. These caused his betrayal and death. He par- 
took of a last supper with his ten disciples and was condemned to 
death by Kansa and crucified at Kusinara, upon a Nimb tree, on the 
Vernal equinox in the 33rd year of his age. To judge the dead he 
descended to the nether world (bhuvana) where he sojourned three 
days and nights, after which he reappeared upon earth, only to 
ascend bodily to heaven (mocksha). This event is commemorated 
by the festival of Houli, for which see B. C. 1219. His principal 
sacraments were the eucharist and baptism; his epigraphic symbols 
were the cross, the bee and the mystic letters O M, or A U M; 
his zodion was the Bull. His favorite disciple was Ar-joona, or Ar- 
jun; some say Jain; others, Jon. His carne- vale (masupadu) lasted 
exactly 40 days. At his death the sun was eclipsed, the earth shook 
with violent commotions and ghosts stalked the highways. His fa- 
vorite plant, or that of his followers, was the margosa, or passion- 
flower. The sole of his foot was marked with the lotus. The attri- 
bute of his images was the spotted fawn-skin mantle. The sign of 
his future or last coming will be his re-appearance as Kalpa, mounted 
upon a white horse. 



jERAs. 93 

B. C. 1332, India. — ^ra used by Kalhana Pandit, in his "His- 
tory of Cashmir. " Prinsep. This is evidently the sera of the 
Buddhic les Chrishna, whose later incarnation Ramchandra Gosha 
fixes in B. C. 644. 

B. C. 1331, Samos. — Pelasgian gera. Approximate date of the 
colonisation of Cipar-Issa, afterwards called Samos, by an Oriental 
race from Pontus, who are known by the name of Pelasgi, and who 
appear to have been connected with the lesiges of the Cimmerian 
Bosphorus, the lesiges of Tarentum, the Phoenicians, the Veneti, the 
Leuco-Syrians, etc., in short, an Oriental maritime and trading race, 
who previous to the rise of the Greek power, established a series of 
factories or trading-posts stretching from the Palus Maeotis along 
the Southern shores of the Pontus and the Byzantine Bosphorus to 
the ^gean sea and afterwards along the coasts and upon the islands 
of the Mediterranean to the Western Ocean. The date is deduced 
from several circumstances: 

i: Thucydides (Intro.) says that before the Trojan war the 
Pelasgians occupied the principal coasts of the Levant. 

2 : The foundation of Cadiz by the Phoenicians, among whom must 
be included the Samians, is ascribed to the year iioi, and it must 
have taken many years to found the series of intermediate island 
colonies which enabled them to push thus far westward. 

3: The Samians worshipped Jasion and the Eight Cabiri, or Chil- 
dren of the Sun. At the head of these Disciples was Dardanos, the 
god or genius of the Sea. (The Prince of Mingrelia, in Colchis, 
who rules a remnant of this ancient race, still calls himself the Dar- 
dianos, or Ruler of the Sea. He is again mentioned below.) The 
relation between Jasion and Dardanos in the Samian cult seems to 
have been similar to that of the les Chrishna and Jain of the Hindus, 
or that of Messiah and Disciple. For these sacred characters, the 
Greeks, when they supplanted the lesiges in the Crimea, substituted 
the Dioscurii. The period of the cult of les Chrishna and Jain 
in Rajputana and Guzerat, varies from B. C. 1332 to B. C. 12 19. 

4: The year 1331 marks the re-incarnation of Buddha, (Table B), 
a period when it is most likely that a schism would arise in the 
Buddho-Brahminical church and when new forms and mysteries of 
worship and the migration of non-conformists would take place. 

A peculiar custom appears to connect the ancient trading race of 
Pontus, Samos and Venetia: that of marrying the sea with a ring. 
A remnant of the Pontine race, who were driven by the Romans 
from the Cimmerian Bosphorus into the mountains of Colchis, existed 



94 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

SO late as the 17th century of our aera and perhaps exists yet. The 
Prince of Mingrelia still called himself Lord of the Sea and annually 
wedded the ocean with a ring, though he possessed neither a sea-port 
nor a ship. Malte Brun, I, 304. The story of Polycrates and the 
emerald ring which he cast into the sea, is evidently a Greek perver- 
sion of the custom which that commander probably found and sup- 
pressed or modified at Samos. Pliny says that the ring of Polycrates 
was shown at Rome in his day, but he evidently doubted the Greek 
story and regarded the ring as spurious. The later custom of the 
doges of Venice is well known, and though it is said to have been 
invented by one of the five Popes of the year 1197, it was in fact 
extremely ancient. Samos is said to have been successfully invaded 
by the lonians under Prodis about B. C. 1050 and to have had fac- 
tories or emporia at Perinthus, (Propontis), Nagidus and Celendaria 
(Cilicia). After this invasion, Samos became a member of the Ionic 
confederacy. 

By the end of the 7th century B. C. the Samians were so much 
behind the age as to be obliged to send to Corinth for Aminocles, a 
Greek ship-wright, that he might build ships for them. (Thucydides). 
In B. C. 639 Col^eus, a Samian captain with a Greek crew, was driven 
westward to Tartessus, near the mouth of the Guadalquiver and 
made a profit of 60 talents by trading with the natives. Herod. Mel. 
52; the date being computed by the Encyc. Brit. Samos possessed 
what Herodotus considered the largest temple in Asia Minor. This 
was erected to an Asiatic goddess, the Matrem Deorum, whom the 
Greeks call Demeter, or Hera, and whose image, as seen upon coins, 
resembled the goddess of Ephesus. Samos was famous for its trading 
fleet, the art of casting images in bronze, which was here first prac- 
tised in the Western world and for its pottery or Samian ware. The 
principal divinity of Samos, Jasion, invented the Mysteries, patron- 
ised the culture of the vine and generally possessed the attributes of 
Hermes or Dionysius. Herod. Thalia, 41; Pliny, xxxiii, 6; xx'xvii, 2; 
Cicero, de Fin., iv. 
f It can scarcely be doubted that it was the race of traders and 
navigators here alluded to, whether called Pelasgii, or by some 
local or else characteristic name, who introduced from the Orient 
into the West the Brahminical theory of divine incarnations, media- 
tors, or messiahs. Leaving out of view writings, because writings 
are easily forged, the earliest valid monuments of the West are not 
only later than those of the East, they are later than the invention of 
avatars, or incarnations; for they all bear some impress of this 



iERAS. 95 

mystery. The superior learning, skill and resources of the Phoe- 
nicians naturally provided a ready acceptance for their religion. But 
after they had accepted it and modified or coloured it with their own 
myths, the natives everywhere evinced an anxiety to get rid of their 
teachers; perhaps in order that their own versions of Chres, Jasius, 
Jason, and Dionysius might go unchallenged. The desire to supplant 
their envied visitors in the lucrative trade of the Orient and of the 
Western coasts might have had no small share in this resolution. 
However this may be, the Assyrians, the Egytians and the Greeks 
attacked them upon every occasion or pretext that offered; yet it 
was not until after some centuries of exhausting resistance that the 
Phoenicians were eventually overcome. In the 6th century B. C. the 
Greeks captured the Phoenician cities of the ^gean and of the Pontus, 
eastward to Colchis and the Palus Maeotis; whilst the Egyptians 
under Necho cut a canal through the Isthmus of Suez and diverted 
the oriental trade, or at least a portion of it, into the Red Sea. 
Even when the power of the Greek States declined and the remnants 
of the Phoenician communities along the coasts of Europe and Asia 
Minor once more raised their heads, they were assailed by a new set 
of conquerors, the Romans, with the same bitterness that had char- 
acterized the Greeks, Egyptians and Assyrians. They were all but 
extirpated at Tarentum, Lissa, Santa Maura, Corfu, Trapesus and 
other places along the coasts of Greece, Italy and Pontus. Almost 
the latest identification of this people was at Samos, B.C. 36 (?) when 
Marc Antony, the Roman Bacchus, made that port the refuge of his 
fleet. 

B. C. 1322, Egypt. — Thoth ist. Egyptian sera, evidently taken 
from the Nebu-Nazarian epoch of the Sothiacal period ending with 
the Divine Year A. D'. 139. Censorinus. Cf. Theon Alexandrinus, 
(4th cent.) as quoted by Biot, " Recherches, sur I'astronomie Egyp- 
tienne," Paris, 1823, p. 303. The equivalent Roman day, July 22nd, 
is given by Greswell, F. C. Ill, 158. In the Alexandrian Augustan 
calendar Thoth ist corresponded with August 29th, the birthday of 
the Indian Dennus and long afterwards the day of Augustus' Ascen- 
sion. Theon gives this year as the aera of Meno-phres or Mene- 
phres, who is unknown to history. The scheme is essentially Chaldean 
and astrological. Cf. Hales, Chron., p. 40; Prinsep, Ind. Ant. II,, 
140; Records of the Past, II, 208; and Plutarch, De Is. et Os. , xiii; 
xlii; xliii. Blot's year for this aera shows the 15-year discrepancy 
between the Augustan and Christian calendars. 

B. C. 1315, India. — -^raof les Chrishna, of his death, according 



g6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

to ancient Indian dates; of his birth, according to Augustan dates. 
His coming was predicted or foretold by prophets; he was born of a 
Virgin ; at Mathura ; cradled and fostered by shepherds; concealed 
soon after his birth for fear of being destroyed by the tyrant Kansa, 
who had ordered all the male children to be slaughtered, etc. All 
this is sculptured at Elephanta. "Over the head of the principal 
figure of the group (which portrays the Slaughter of the Innocents) 
are to be seen the mitre, the crosier and the cross." Higgins, 
Anacal. I, 133. Chrishna, though he had a staunch friend who stood 
by him in all his trials and sufferings, yet he died a martyr on the 
cross; descended into hell; returned to earth; and finally ascended 
to heaven. Maurice, II, 149. "The statue of Chrishna at Mathura 
is black; and the temple is built in the form of a cross." Crawford's 
"Researches," II, 18. His hair was woolly; and he is so depictedin 
all the Indian paintings and statues. 

B. C. 1312, Chorasmia. — Foundation sera of the Chorasmians, 
or Kwar-Ismians, 980 years before Alexander the Great. Albiruni's 
"Chronology," ed. Sachau, p. 39. The Chorasmii were a great and 
rich nation of Sacs, who dwelt in Bactria, on the Oxus, south of the 
Aral and east of the Caspian sea. They worshipped the Sun, to whom 
they sacrificed horses, .says Strabo, XI, viii, 6 to 8. They also 
worshipped the incarnations of the Sun, especially les Chrishna, for 
whose asra this year is evidently meant. The principal city of the 
khanate was Khiva. 

B. C. 1311, China. — Conjectural original sera of Yao, the third 
Messiah of the ancient Chinese mythological scheme, the first being 
Fo-hi and the second Hoang-ti. The various dates assigned to Yao 
by Chinese native authorities are B. C. 241 1, 2337, 2334, 2331, 2326, 
2303, 2264, 2145, 2145, 2132, 1965, the last being that of the astrologer 
Hwang-fu-mi. From this date, which, though the lowest of any, is 
evidently far too ancient, we have ventured to subtract 'one Chinese 
"phen,"or divine year, which appears to have been equal to 654 
common years. (See Chap. VIII). Yao was assisted or supported 
in his reign by Chun, or John. Yao was a wise and virtuous (myth- 
ological) ruler, whom, together with his Twelve disciples, the Chinese 
converted into actual emperors, adding four or five more to the line, 
whom they probably took from the mythological followers of Hoang- 
ti to enrich Yao. It was in the reign of this fabulous being that the 
Deluge, hung-shway, took place, as described in the " Shu-king." Be- 
tween the native dates above given and some of those brought to Eu- 
rope by Du Halde and other Jesuit missionaries, there is a difference 



jEras, 97 

of exactly 6$ years. Compare B. C. 2474 and 2397 with 241 1 and 2334. 
With other dates the difference is 73 years. Compare 2337 and 2218 
with 2264 and 2145. This is an indication that some of the Chinese 
native dates have come to us through East Indian equivalents, be- 
tween which and our chronology there is a difference of 63 years. 
Others have come through both Indian and Byzantine equivalents, 
media which widen the difference to 73 years. For details concern- 
ing Yao see " Middle Ages Revisited," Appendix Q. 

B. C. 1306, India. — Institution of the solar year and of the festi- 
val of Durgha, Mother of God, and of Dennus, Dionysius, or lanus, 
Son of God. Correction of the Indian Calendar, previously lunar. 
Head of the year, ist Aswin (then 29th August). Greswell, "K. H." 
V, 87. See B. C. 11 76. "The Indian Deunnus and Durga were 
absolutely the same kind of conceptions and impersonations in India, 
as Crisis and Isis in Egypt." Greswell, F. C, IV, 31. De Milloue 
identifies Durga with Parvati and Pritheri. See B. C. 1336, 

B. C. 1300, India. — ^ra of Chrishna Dvaipayana Jesa, accord- 
ing to Ramchandra Ghosha, a modern writer, who says that Chrishna 
"re-arranged" the Vedas and taught them to his disciples. The 
abbe Raynal writes this name " Christna " which he gives both to the 
Indian Messiah and the sacred river of India. 

B. C. 1300, Peloponnesus. — JEra of the Dorian Conquest, when 
the rites of Ceres (and Bacchus) were suppressed by the Dorians, 
except in Arcadia. Herodotus, Euterpe, 171; Max Miiller; Clinton, 
F. H. , I, xii. Herodotus adds that these rites were brought from 
Egypt by the daughters of Danaus. This date forms an important 
link in the chain of evidence which connects the Indian Chrishna 
with the Greek Bacchus. 

B. C. 1292, Troy. — Troja Capta. Did. Sic. and several other 
of the Greek chronologists count 408 years from the first Olympiad 
backward to Troja Capta. This has usually been counted backward 
from the Olympiads of Coroebus, B. C. 776, making Troja Capta B. C. 
1 184 or 1 183 ; but if it is counted from the Olympiads of Iphitus, B. C. 
884, as it properly should be, it will fix Troja Capta in B.C. 1292 or 
1291. This agrees with the seras of Perseus, les Chrishna, Bacchus, 
etc., and is 'probably of the same mythological orgin. 

B. C. 1291, Argos. — False sera of Medusa. Acrisius, K. of 
Argos, being told by the oracle that he would be killed by his grand- 
child, imprisoned his daughter Danae in a bronze tower, that she 
might have no issue. In spite of this precaution she was visited by 
Jupiter, the supreme deity, by whom she miraculously conceived a 



98 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

son named Perseus. Whereupon Acrisius committed both Danae 
and her divine infant to an ark, which was launched upon the sea. 
From this vessel they were rescued by the fishermen of Seriphusand 
protected by Polydectes the K. of this ^gean isle. This Indian 
legend is also told, in various forms, of les Chrishna, Foh, Fod or 
Bod, Osiris, Ericthonius, Bacchus, Nyssos, Adonis, Tennes, Cypse- 
lus, Darius, Cleomedes, etc. The story of Astyges, Mandane and 
Cyrus, in Herodotus I, 107, is of similar origin. See also Madyain 
the Vishnu Purana. Thomas, " Jainism," II, 3. Among the adven- 
tures of Perseus are his killing of Medusa, queen of the Gorgons, 
who was the vanquisher and successor of Marina, queen of the Ama- 
zons, etc. Diod. Sic. This legend of les Chrishna evidently 
travelled from India to China and Scythia and from Scythia into 
Greece and Egypt, where it was adapted to the Scythian raid under 
Madyes, B. C. 548 q. v. The commentator upon Booth's Diodorus 
fixes the slaying of Medusa by Perseus in B. C. 1291, which is a few 
years after the Augustan date of the birth of the first Buddha, B. C. 
1316, and one divine year before the sack of Ascalon. For Marina 
see B. C. 1394. For the sera of Medusa and sack of Ascalon, see 
B. C. 548. 

B. C. 1290, Greece. — Aera of Inachus, or Bacchus, acording to 
Aretes, apud Censorinus, ch. XXI. Following are the various other 
seras of Bacchus cited by Censorinus, who gives them in years before' 
the consulate of Ulpius and Pontianus, (A. D. 238). The equiva- 
lents are made in years of the present calendar, which begins in the 
Olympian year 776 or A. U. 754=A. D. i. Aera of Bacchus, 
according to Timaeus, B. C. 1193; Eratosthenes, B. C. 1183; Sosibius, 
B. C. 1171. When the 65 years which have been sunk from the cal- 
endar are restored to it, all these aeras are seen to be derived from 
Chrishna. See B. C. 1156, 1181, 1300 and 1306. 

Among the many names of Bacchus were lacchus, laccho, Inachus, 
laku or Jaku, Liber Pater, Logon Pater and Dionysius. His celestial 
father was Zeus, or Jupiter; his virgin mother was Maia, though ac- 
cording to others her name was Semele, Demeter, Cybele, Venus 
Melainis (the Black) and Rhea, or Proserpine. Bacchus was born on 
the winter solstice, either atNyssain India, or according to others, 
Nysa or Nissa in Arabia; he was born in a cave; among shepherds; 
his head was rayed; and according to Ovid, Pausanias and Anacreon, 
his complexion was black and his hair woolly, though according to 
others he was of florid complexion with auburn hair parted in the 
middle and floating down in ringlets. Some of the extant images 



JERAS. 99 

are black; others white; in all cases he is portrayed as young and 
beautiful; the corpulent Bacchus striding a wine barrel being a me- 
diaeval invention. Bacchus was included in a slaughter of infants 
ordered by K. Cadmus, but he escaped. He performed numerous 
well attested miracles and invented or established many of the most 
useful arts known to man. His doctrines were contained in the 
Book of Petrouma. The number of his disciples was 12. For 
preaching levelUng doctrines he was condemned to death by Cadmus 
and subjected to be torn to pieces, some say crucified, on a vernal 
equinox, at the age of 3$ years. At his death the sun was eclipsed. 
To judge the dead he descended to Hades, where he remained three 
days and nights; some say a much longer interval. From Hades he 
rose again and finally ascended bodily to Elysium. His sacraments 
were the communion, baptism, the oscophoria and the thaumagoria; 
his emblematic plant was the ivy; his epigraphic symbols were the 
+, f, Ze?, the bee, and the mystic fan; his zodion was the Bull; 
and the attributes of his images, the Cross, Bleeding Heart, Cantha- 
rus, (or sacrificial Cup), the staff of augury, the thyrsus and the 
fawn skin mantle. 

B. C. 1290, Troy — Fall of Troy, according to Aretes, that is, if 
Troja Capta is assumed to synchronise with his Bacchic sera, q. v. 

B. C. 1260, Arcadia. — April 25. Aera of the " Lykeea of Arca- 
dia," Greswell, Kal. Hellen., Ill, 373. Lykaea was a surname of 
Diana; Lykseeus was a surname of Pan, whom Greswell, III, 372, 
recognises as the Sun and identifies with Poseidon of Troezen, Osiris 
of Egypt and Janus of Rome, In his Fasti Cath. I, 552, Greswell 
gives June 25, B. C. 1260, for the epoch of the Calendar of Pelops, 

B. C. 1258, Troy — Siege of Troy deduced from Herodotus in 
Euterpe, 145. He computes it at above 800 years before his time. 
The siege lasted ten years and therefore ended B, C. 1248, q. v. 

B. C. 1252, Ionia. — Aera of Ancient Ionia, Either this year, or 
B. C. 1248 (q, V.) says Greswell, K, H, III, 373. 

B. C. 1248, Ionia. — April 25. Aera of Ionia and epoch of First 
Panionic cycle. The second cycle began April 25, B, C, 592. Gres- 
well, K. H, III, 373, These Panionic cycles were 656 years apart, 
roughly equal to one astrological cycle, or Divine Year, Cf, Herod- 
otus, Euterpe, 145, 

B. C. 1248, Troy. — Fall of Troy according to the deduction from 
Herodotus given under B, C, 1258, There are over 40 different an- 
cient authorities who have given a date to this event, most of them 
derived from Eratosthenes, who said "408 years before the first 



100 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Olympiad." If the quadrennial Olympiads were meant, this would 
fix Troja Capta in B. C. 1183; if the quinquennial Olympiads, then 
Troja Capta would answer to B. C. 1291 or 1292, q. v. The date 
of Troja Capta given by the remaining authorities is as varied as the 
aera of Chrishna or Bacchus, from whose advent the date (not the 
story) of the Fall of Troy is evidently derived. Aretes says B. C. 
1290; Herodotus (as above) 1248; Dicsearchus 121 2 (to this date 
should be added the Augustan alteration of 78 years) ; while the 
Parian marbles say Thargelion 7th, 1209 (add 78), The date from 
the Parian marbles is based on the assumption that Diognetus was 
archon of Athens in B. C. 264 or 263, which, to the extent that the 
calendar has been altered, may be incorrect. Herodotus, Euterpe, 
145, fixes Troja Capta before Pan. Its most probable date is B. C. 
1292. 

B. C. 1235, Attica. — ^ra of Theseus, according to Rev. Lem- 
priere. The Rev. E. Greswell prefers B. C. 1206. In point of fact 
the date should precede that of Troja Capta. The name of Theseus 
is evidently a corruption of Esus, because the initial letter, 0, theta, 
with which the name is spelled, was unknown to the Greek alpha- 
bet at the period assigned to Theseus; theta, xi, phi, and chi, hav- 
ing been invented by Palamedes, a reputed grandson of Neptune, at 
a later period. Pliny, N. H. VII, 57. Theseus (or Esus) was the 
son of Neptune by .^Ethra; the putative father being vEgeus, King 
of Athens. Theseus was born at Genethliam, the place of the birth. 
Among his ten famous exploits was his victory over Busiris. See 
B. C. 1528. Most of these adventures, as well as his return to Ath- 
ens from Crete, took place on the eighth day of a month, the number 
eight having (once) been sacred to Neptune. Bell's "Pantheon." 
Hence the Athenian sacrifices to Theseus were made on the eighth 
day of every month. Theseus was condemned to death by ^geus, 
but saved through the recognition of the tokens he wore. A sacred 
dance, called by the Delians the Crane, was performed at Delos in 
his honor. The identical ship in which he had voyaged from Crete 
was preserved in Athens for over a thousand years! He changed the 
the name of the city from Attis to Athens; he instituted the Pana- 
thensea and the Synoecia; he coined money stamped with the figure 
of a bull, or ox; he established the Isthmian games to Neptune; he 
voyaged into the Euxine to wage war against the Scythian amazons; 
he saved Athens by marrying their leader, Hippolyta, who otherwise 
would have entered and destroyed the city; and his sons went into 
the Trojan war. He descended into hell to carry off Prosperine and 



^RAS. lOI 

afterwards rose again to life. Finally he was shown the riches of 
the earth by Lycomedes from the top of a high rock, from which he 
was treacherously thrown and killed. After the death of Theseus 
his bones were preserved by the Athenians as sacred relics and his 
tomb became a sanctuary for the poor and oppressed. The story of 
Thesues is evidently that of the Pelasgian Ischenou, distorted and 
embellished by Greek fancy. 

B. C. 1225, Argos. — Year of the Argonautic expedition, accord- 
ing to Rev, Dr. Clinton, Rev. E. Greswell, K. H., II, 485, prefers 
B. C. 1230 and says that Orpheus took part in it. On the other 
hand, Geodfrey Higgins, Anacal. I, 344, and Dr. Daniel Rutherford 
regard the story as altogether fictitious. Rutherford says that the 
star Canopus which is said to have guided the adventurers, was in 
fact not visible from Greece. Higgins says it is an Indian tale. 

B. C. 1225, Venetia. — Conjectural aera of Diomede, a surname 
of Jason (Myth, de Banier, t. VI), to whom a temple was erected in 
Timatum, at the head of the Adriatic Gulf, now San Giovanni del 
Carso, and after whom were named the Diomedean Islands, on the 
east coast of Italy. One of these islands was called Teutria, or 
Taat-ria, which, in the language of the Veneti, meant the city of 
Taat. There was also a city of Teate on the adjacent mainland. In 
the former, according to the Veneti, this divinity received his Apoth- 
eosis, and from this place he vanished, or ascended to heaven. The 
place-names are Buddhic. The victims sacrificed by the Veneti to 
Jason were white horses, Strabo V, i, 10; VI, iii, 9. The sera of 
this myth of Jason has been fixed with regard to the period ascribed 
to the Argonautic Expedition. There is no doubt that the ancient 
Veneti worshipped Jason, with probably a sacrifice of horses ; but 
much of the rest is Greek fable and perversion. In the Odyssey 
XVII, 443, Diomede is changed to Dmetor, son of Jasus, king of 
Cyprus. 

B. C. 1219, Rajputana. — Jain sera of the incarnation of les 
Chrishna, Son of the Virgin Mai (or Deoki), the Mediator and Sa- 
viour of mankind, to whose worship have been erected some of the 
most magnificent temples in India. Prominent among these are the 
shrines of Dilwara, orDiluara and Duarka, variously written Dwarka, 
Dwaraca, Dwarica, etc. Dilwara is situated half way up Guru Sikra 
(the "Saint's Steeple"), a lofty summit of the Aravulli Range in 
Rajputana. It consists of four temples arranged in the form of a 
cross, which, says Col. Tod, form the most superb structure in all 
India. The site was purchased at the expense of covering it com- 



I02 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

pletely with silver coins and the total cost of the buildings and site 
fell but little short of $100,000,000. The dates of the structures 
range from the nth to the 15th centuries of our sera. Dwarka is 
situated on the promontory at the southern entrance of the Gulf of 
Cutch. Here splendid shrines are erected to Chrishna and Deoki. 
It is this location and the surrounding topography and place-names 
from which Pococke drew the famous parallel with the temple of 
Crissa, on the shores of the Crissean Sea, near the Gulf of Salona, 
in Greece. The coincidences are certainly very remarkable. 

The Jains trace the establishment of their religion on its present 
basis to Parsavanasa, about B. C. 800. They are divided into two 
sects, whose tenets, a mingling of Brahminism and Buddhism, do 
not essentially differ. To them the creation is eternal, but not so 
the heavenly incarnations of the Deity, who, at the beginning of 
each Divine Year, are sent to restore peace on earth and re-establish 
the affairs of mankind. These avatars return to the bosom of the 
Eternal into which they are absorbed for a time to again and again 
issue forth in the metempsychosis. The most eminent convert to 
Jainism was Asoka, B. C. 263, who at first professed himself a wor- 
shipper of les Chrishna, but finally went over to Buddhism pure and 
simple. Thomas, "Jainism," p. 8. That form of the cross called 
the svastika was the symbol of Suparswa, the seventh Ticthankaru 
of the Jains. The following table supplies the various Jain, or 
Janus aeras; those in brackets being regarded as erroneous: 

B. C. SWETAMBARA JAINS. 

1219. — Incarnation of les Chrishna, 1156 years before the Vicrama- 

ditya of B. C. 63. Col. Wilford, Asiat. Res. IX, 209. 
1207. — Birth of Jain, the Disciple, 12 years later. He lived 257 

years and died B. C. 950. 
g4g_4. — Re-incarnation of les Chrishna. Duff Rickmers. This date 

is one pseudo-Brahminical Divine Year, or 675 common years 

after B. C. 12 19. 
^23-2. — Second appearance of Jain, the Mahavira, one Divine year 

after B. C. 1207, or 470 years before the Vicrama of B. C. 

6$. Gen. Cunningham calls this a nirvana of Mahavira. 
^28-7. — Mahavira, 470 years before the Vicrama of B. C. 57. Cun- 
ningham. 

B. C. DIGAMBARA JAINS. 

1219. — Incarnation of les Chrishna, 1297 years before the Vicrama- 
ditya of A. D. 78. 



^RAS. 103 

B. C. DIGAMBARA JAINS. CONTINUED. 

1 1 78. — (Incarnation of les Chrishna. Variant date.) 
1108. — (Incarnation of les Chrishna. Variant date.) 
1078. — Incarnation of les Chrishna, 1156 years before the Vicrama- 

ditya of A. D. 78. Col. Wilford, op. cit. 
1036. — Jain, the Disciple, born 42 years later. He lived S6 years 

and died B. C. 950. Wilford. 
662. — (Mahavira, 605 years before the Vicrama of B. C. 57. Cun- 
ningham.) 
629. — (Jain sera. The Pandits' "Chronology.") 
569. — (Jain Mahavira. The Pandits.) 
528-7. — Re-incarnation of les Chrishna, one Buddhic Divine year, 
550 common years, after B. C. 1078 or 605 years before A. D. 
78. Gen. Cunningham has discovered monumental proofs of 
Jainism at this date. Thomas, " Jainism," II, 80. 

A. D. 

800. — ^ra of Avarsha, son of Govinda, a Digambara rajah of Gu- 
zerat, in the year of Salivahana 736, which, being computed 
from A. D. 63-4, is equal to A. D. 800. 

The Jain sra of les Chrishna must not be mistaken for the Jain 
Anno Mundi, which is far more ancient. The confusion into which 
some of these eeras are thrown is largely due to the alterations of the 
Roman calendar. For example, the incarnation of les Chrishna is 
fixed by the Swetambaras in the equivalent of B. C. 12 19 and by the 
Digambaras, in the equivalent of B. C. 1078; a difference of 141 
years. This is precisely the difference between the Salivahanna or 
Vicamaditya of B. C. 65 and that of A. D. 78. The Indian accounts 
are chronologically correct and harmonious : it is our own thrice al- 
tered calendar that makes them appear discordant. The Jain colos- 
sal statues of Iswaru (les) at Bellagolla and other places in India 
have woolly hair. Davis, in Asiatic Researches, IX, 256-64. 

B, C. 1219, Rajputana. — Swetambara sera of the Calijoga- 
Wilford, op. cit. 

B. C. 1219, Blis. — .^Eraof Ischenus, or Ischenou,I(T;i;ei'oi', whose 
holy sepulchre stood in the middle of the stadium of Pisa, a city 
situated on the river Alpheus in Elis. See Lycophron, in " Cassan- 
dra," circ. B. C. 260 and the Commentary of Tzetzes. This sepulchre 
was successively called the tomb of Pelops, of Poseidon, etc. Pindar; 
Pliny; Dio Chrysostom. At the mouth of the Alpheus stood the 
promontory of Ichthys, the Fish. Pliny, N. H. IV, 6. The date 



I04 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

when this name was given it is unknown. Ischenus, (evidently a cor- 
ruption of les Chrishna), was the god of the Veneti, who, after his 
adoption by the Greeks, was affected by the priests to be the grand- 
son of Mercury and of Hera "our Lady," a sobriquet of Juno. 
There was an annual festival to Ischenus, called Ischenia; also a quin- 
quennial one, the celebrated festival, which successively bore the 
name of Ischenia, Cronia, Pelopeia, and Olympiade. The fable that 
Pelops was the son of Jupiter and that he came from Phrygia, also 
the fact that he was worshipped as a god, belongs to a later age than 
the worship either of Ischenus, or of Cronos. Pliny, N. H. XXVIII, 
6, says that the ivory rib of Pelops was preserved at Elis. Pausanius, 
V, xiii, 3, says that the relic was the shoulder-blade of Pelops, which 
had been miraculously recovered from the ocean. It had no doubt 
been previously venerated as a relic of Ischenus. Both this and the 
colossal foot of Hercules, which measured the course of the stadium, 
are legends of the first Buddha and are doubtless of Pontine and 
Oriental origin. The sacred festival and exercises successively 
called Ischenia, Cronia (in Latin, Saturnalia) Pelopeia and Olym- 
piade, took place every five years and lasted for five days, occupying 
the epagomense, or interval, which distinguished the year of 360 
from that of 365 days; a proof that the Ischenia were instituted be- 
fore the discovery of the Julian year of 365^ days. As such dis- 
covery (so far as it related to the Occident), is attributed to the 6th 
century B. C. , while the quinquennial Ischenia, even after they came 
to be known as Olympiades, are assigned to the 9th century B. C, 
it might seem to be superfluous to mention this deduction. But it 
must be borne in mind that the assignment of the Julian year to the 
6th century is a fact, or at all events an approximation to the truth; 
while the celebration of the Olympiades in the 9th century B.C., is a 
fable. The Babylonians had a similar five-day festival to Anaitis, which 
was approximately called the Sacaen or Sakaen ; the Phrygians had a 
similar one to Attis and Cybele, mother of the gods. In Elis, at 
the end of five years, the five epagomenaee were made up into an 
intercalary month called Cronia. Plutarch in Theseus assigns this 
month by name and dedication to this hero; whose sera, it should be 
stated, coincides with that of Ischenus. In the Greek states the 
Olympiads — if this familiar name may properly be used in alluding 
to their archaic phrase — were celebrated every five years; and as 
these periods were universally employed for the computation of time, 
a correct knowledge of their origin cannot fail to be of interest to 
the chronologer and historian. 



^RAS. 105 

The classical story is that the five-year Olympiads were instituted 
by Jasius, B. C. 1406; revived by Iphitus king of Elis, and Lycurgus 
king of Sparta, B. C. 884; and altered to four-year periods and 
named after Coroebus, in B. C. 776; the first and last of these attri- 
butions and dates being fabulous. The five-year festivals or penta- 
eteris cannot be historically traced back farther than the festival and 
sera of Ischenus, nor was this earlier than the Indian sera of les 
Chrishna, of which it is doubtless an adaptation. Its epoch, there- 
fore, is about B. C. 12 19, concerning which we have the explicit 
testimony of Valleius Paterculus, I, 7: "Hoc sacrum eodum loco 
instuisse fertur abhinc annos MCCL, Atreus cum Pelopi patre fune- 
bris ludos faceret," that is to say, 1250 years before the consulate of 
of M. Vinucius, A. U. 783, or A. D. 30. This is equal to B. C. 
1220. 

The altar at Olympia which was common to Cronios and Helios; 
the name of Elis itself, which is probably a form of Helios (the Sun); 
and the testimony of Pausanius III, 61, that a stated or regular sac- 
rifice was there annually made on the vernal equinox, suggest that, 
following the Indian Houli, the annual Ischenia were originally cele- 
brated at this period of the year. However, the festival was 
afterwards, date unknown, transferred to the full moon following 
midsummer, and eventually to midwinter. The quinquennial Ischenia 
like its original in India, was always celebrated at midsummer. 
"Story of the Gods," IV, 4. 

Among the attributes which were common to both les Chrishna 
(the Indian Dionysius) and to Ischenus (the Greek Dionysius), were 
the cross, the sacerdotal cup and the mantle of fawn-skin with white 
spots, mentioned in Pliny, N. H., VIII, 31. The Tanagra terra 
cottas in the British Museum may belong to the same cult. Among 
these are No. C. 293 (39) a bearded and rayed Figure entitled 
"Dionysius holding a cantharus " (sacerdotal cup) ; the rayed Virgin 
holding a Bleeding Heart; No. C. 278, Holy Mother and Child; and 
No. B. 412, Ischenus (?) with a Lamb upon his shoulders. All of 
these attributes, not the figures, are shown to be both oriental and 
Dionysian, in the cuts published by Rev. Alex. Hislop, in his "Two 
Babylons " and in Maurice's "Indian Antiquities." 

The Olympiads as four-year intervals are not referred to by Homer 
or Hesiod. Herodotus frequently mentions the Olympian games, 
but he does not state their interval nor employ them as dates. Be- 
tween Herodotus and Timseus there are no writings from which it 
can be deduced that they were regarded as four-year intervals. 



I06 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Acusilaus and Hellanicus, for all that can be shown to the contrary, 
may have meant them for five-year periods. Cf. Africanus and Eu- 
sebius, (Prep. Evan. X, lo). Nor is it certain that Timteus meant 
them for four-year and not for five-year periods. Had Csesar ordered 
the Olympiads to be reckoned as four-year instead of five-year pe- 
riods, the difference which this would have made in ancient chronology, 
which is io8 years, is fully represented in the discordant dates of 
Troja Capta. What is certain about them is that the Olympiads 
even after the name of Olympiads was taken from them, never lost 
their name of five-year periods; to the last they were always called 
pentaeteris, or quinquennales, both of which terms relate to five and 
not four years. 

Phlegon or Tralles, (tempo Hadrianus), says that the olive crown 
was instituted in the 7th olympiad after Iphitus, and won by Daicles, 
of Messina. This event is commonly assigned in chronological works 
to B. C. 752; but the computation is without warrant. For all we 
know to the contrary, Daicles may have won his prize in B. C. 854. 

Turning now to the four-year olympiads, they could not have been 
earlier than the Julian year, because the only event they celebrated 
was what we now call the leap-year, which is peculiar to that cycle. 
There are many reasons for believing that the four-year olympiads 
are not earlier than the Roman imperial period. After the institu- 
tion of the four-year periods, in chronology, the quinquennales were 
called Csesar's Games and they ceased to be known as Olympiads. 
This was in the Augustan age. In the reign of Tiberius they were 
called Augustan games. See B. C. 6^ for further mention of them. 
Ischenou had ten disciples; his earlier zodion was the Bull; after- 
wards the Lamb and the Fishes. 

B. C. 1206, Attica. — Death of Theseus, according to Gresswell, 
K. H., IV, 513. 

B. C. 1200, Egypt. — vEra of Rhampsinitus, according to Blair. 
Variants of name, Ram-Ies, Rhempsis. Bryant identifies him with 
Orus, or Horus, Thammuz, Adonis, etc. He was miraculously born 
of a Virgin, died at the winter solstice, descended to hell, rose again 
and ascended to heaven, etc.. Herodotus says that the resurrection 
of the Messiah was celebrated in his day by a solemn festival. 

B. C. 1193, Southern India. — ^ra of Parasurama, accoraing 
to one of the calculations in Bentley's "Hindu Astronomy." This 
is sixteen years earlier than the common reckoning, which is B. C. 
1177. 

B, C. 1193, Argos. — Inachus, according to Timteus, in Censo- 



^RAS. 107 

rinus XX. See the Hebrew Inachus, or Enoch, under B. C. 1188. 

B.C. 1188,Judea. — Conjectural sera of Enoch. According to 
Rev. Wm. Hales, author of "Chronology upon scriptural and scien- 
tific principles . . . tending to obviate the cavils of Sceptics, Jews, 
and infidels," London, 1830, p. 36, "The apochryphal Book of 
Enoch states that the * Archangel Ariel, president of the stars, dis- 
covered the nature of the month and of the year to Enoch, in the 
165th year of his age and the year of the world 1286.' " On p. loi 
Dr. Hales follows the Greek Church and assigns the Creation to B. C. 
541 1 ; hence, by his reckoning, Enoch's revelation of the month and 
year was in B. C. 4125. According to the Hebrew calendar this was 
365 years before the Creation. But as the Book of Enoch was pre- 
sumably a Hebrew (or Hebraicised) work and as the Anno Mundi of 
the Hebrews was fixed in B. C. 3760 it follows that Enoch's revela- 
tion was intended to be fixed in B. C. 2474, which is the period of 
the Chinese Jove (Yao) to whose regulation of the calendar this 
legend appears to bear some resemblance. If from this starting 
point the 1 286 years of Enoch are again deducted, the product is B. C. 
1 188, which is approximately the sera of the Indian Parasurama and 
the Greek Inachus. Higgins says that the Book of Enoch was 
quoted by Eupolemos, about B. C. 200. Anacal. I, 545. Both the 
name, the date and the story are of astrological origin. 

B. C. 1183, Greece. — .^ra of Inachus, also of Troja Capta, ac- 
cording to Eratosthenes. Censorinus XXI; Clinton, F. H. I, 139, 
et al. Callimachus fixes the sera of Inachus in a year equal to B. C. 
1 1 27; both of these computations being reckoned backward from the 
four-year Olympiads. Here it is to be remarked that between all 
the dates of Eratosthenes and Callimachus there is a difference of 
just 56 years until they come to the four-year Olympiads (of Coroe- 
bus), B. C. 776, when they agree. This variance may be due to a 
difference in using a starting point for both previous and subsequent 
dates, namely, at the five-year Olympiads of Iphitus, whose sera Era- 
tosthenes fixes in B. C. 884, while Callimachus fixes it in B. C. 828. 
On the other hand, it may be due to the alteration of the calendar 
by Augustus Csesar. 

B. C. 1183, Troy. — Troja Capta, apud Eratosthenes, Apollo- 
dorus; Dion. Hal.; and Dio. Sic. Computed from the four-year- 
Olympiads. 

B. C. 1182, Southern India. — Incarnation of Parasurama, ac- 
cording to another calculation of Bentley, op. cit. This is five years 
earlier than the common reckoning. Another European calculation 
says B. C. 1181. 



I08 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 1181, India. — Festival of Durgha celebrated this year. 
Owing to more correct astronomical data, which were obtained B. C. 
945, the date of the Festival of Durgha was put back to B. C. 1192. 
Brennand, op. cit, 61. 

B. C. 1181, India. — ^Era of the Indian astronomer Parasara and 
of the Mahabharata wars. Brennand. For Parasara see also B. C. 
1391 and 596. 

B, C. 1181, Troy.—" Fall of Troy, "according to Greswell, K.H., 
I, 303- 

B. C. 1178, India. — Digambara variation of the aera of les 
Chrishna. See B. C. 12 19. 

B. C. 1177, Southern India. — ^ra of Parasurama and his ten 
disciples. Common reckoning. Greswell, F. C. IV, 31. By some 
writers this incarnation is called Dennus. Parasurama was the 
eighth incarnation of lesnu or Vishnu, as les Chrishna was the 
ninth ; yet the followers of the latter have attributed a greater an- 
tiquity to their divinity than the followers of the former have given 
to theirs. The epoch was Aswin ist, agreeing with our August 29th. 
Cowasjee Patell regards this as the period (Aswin ist, B. C. 11 76) 
when the solar calendar was adopted in Southern India. The dis- 
covery of the planetary character of Jupiter, the basis of the Jovian 
cult is also to be ascribed to (about) the same period. It is rather 
singular that the worshippers of Augustus Caesar should have changed 
his ascension day in the calendar from February 2 6th to the birth- 
day of Parasurama, August 29th. In the Roman ecclesiastical calen- 
dar it is still called the day of " Saint Augustine," 

B. C. 1176, Southern India. — Parasurama, or Quilon, or Kol- 
1am (western) sera confined to Malayana, /. e., Mangalore, Malabar, 
Cotiote, and Travancor to Cape Comorin. This year, says Cowasjee 
Patell, the Indians changed from a lunar to a solar calendar, begin- 
ning with ist Aswina=29th August. Gen. Cunningham, op. cit. 
This was the birthday of the Indian Dennus. It was also connected 
with the worship of the Virgin Mother, It was long afterward 
adopted for the alleged ascension day of the Roman Augustus. It 
is still the day of " Saint Augustine." See B. C. 1306 and 6$; and 
A. D. 14 and 825. Cf. the Pandits' "Chron." 

B. C. 1176, India. — Most probable date when the orbit of Jupi- 
ter was determined and the Jovian cycles were commenced to be 
used for computing time. This conjecture is based in part upon the 
periods when sidereal, or else solar, years (Pan cycles), instead of 



^RAS. 109 

lunar ones, were begun to be actually employed in India and in the 
Greek states, both in Asia and Europe. 

B. C. 1171, Greece. — ^ra of Inachus, according to Sosibius, 
cited in Censorinus, XX. See B, C. 1290. 

B. C. 1169, India. — The various seras which cluster around this 
period, viz., B. C. 1193, Parasurama; 1193, Inachus; 1183, Inachus; 
1183, TrojaCapta; 1182, Parsurama; 1181, TrojaCapta; 1178, les 
Chrishna; 1177, Parasurama; 1176, Dennus; 1171, Inachus; and 
1 156, les Chrishna, are drawn variously from Indian and Greek 
sources, a conjunction which when they are corrected by the addi- 
tion of 78 or else 108 years points to this period as the date of some 
actual event of world wide importance. The statement of Cowasjee 
Patell that this year the Indians changed from a lunar to a solar 
(sidereal) calendar; the adoption of the ist Aswin (our 29th August) 
as the head of the calendar; the connection of the Indian les 
Chrishna, Dennus, or Dionysius with the Greek Inachus or Bacchus 
of this period; the sera of the worship of Zeus-pitar, Jupiter or Jove 
in Asia Minor and Greece — these and the other considerations al- 
luded to elsewhere in this work point to this period as that of the re- 
construction of the Brahminical, Chaldean and Greek astrologies. 

B. C. 1156, India. — ^ra of les Chrishna, according to Col. Tod. 
See B. C. 13 15 for details concerning this favorite incarnation of the 
Orient. 

B. C. 1144, Thebes. — Conjectural date of the Nativity of the 
Scythian or Indian messiah known to the Greeks as the Indian Bac- 
chus, or the Bearded Bacchus, or Dionysius, who was born in Nyssa, 
near Mount Meroe, a mythological location, which Alexander the 
Great pretended to identify, on his march to the Indus. Here, at 
Nyssa, his soldiers sacrificed to the great oriental Conqueror of the 
World, whose footsteps the Macedonian declared he was retracing. 
Pliny, N. H. VI, 23; Justin, XII, 7. The Zendavesta places Nyssa, 
or Nissa, between Bactria and Merv. Duncker's "Persia," 31. But 
indeed there were Nissas and Meroes in all countries which laid 
claim to the honour of having given birth to les Chrishna or Bac- 
chus. Before issuing from his Scythian birth-place Bacchus made a 
covenant with Lycurgus, King of Thrace, son of Dryas, one of the 
Seven great leaders who went with Eteocles and who perished in the 
Theban war, B. C. 11 20. Eteocles was brother to Polynices, who 
had married a daughter of Adrastus, King of Sicyon, another of the 
Seven who went against Thebes. Lycurgus having proved false to 
his covenant, the god caused him to be nailed to a Bacchic cross. 



no A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

upon which he perished in agony. Dio. Sic, p. 119. In the shrine 
excavated in the island of Milo in 1819, and which contained the 
celebrated image misnamed the Venus di Milo, now in the Louvre 
of Paris, were also found images of the Bearded Bacchus and the 
Youthful Bacchus, one on each side of the goddess. The year B. C. 
1 1 20 marks the foundation of a republic in Thebes. The city was 
destroyed by Alexander the Great, B. C. 334, before he went to In- 
dia. To make the date given above harmonize with Indian dates, 6^ 
years must be added, thus 1144 plus 63=1207 B. C. 

B. C. 1128, India. — End of the Tenth divine incarnation of les 
Chrishna, or Vishnu. Augustan date. See Table A. 

B. C. 1122, China. — First year of Tcheou or Chow dynasty em- 
ployed for computing time by the Chinese Jews. See B. C. 509. 

B. C. 1108, India. — Nativity of Jaina, or Mahavira. See B. C. 
1207. 

B. C. 1106, Chaldea. — August 8. Epoch mentioned by Gres- 
well, F. C, III, 475- 

B. C. 1106, Egypt. — Conjectural date of the Hycsos invasion, 
couched in terms of the Christian calendar. To harmonize it with 
oriental dates 65 years must be added, making it B. C. 1169. The 
date is based upon the conjunction of the various seras and calendar 
changes shown under B. C. 1169 and the civil and religious changes 
and shifting of populations which appear to have taken place in the 
Pontine and Greek states at about the same period. According to 
Manetho, the Hycsos were driven out of Egypt after a residence of 
511 years. The Assyrologists say that the Scythians were driven 
out of Assyria by Sargon II., who defeated them at Carchemish, in 
B. C. 717. Another band was driven out in 605. (See 6^;^.) Egypt- 
ologists have commonly assigned a higher date to the Hycsos, be- 
cause they have permitted themselves to be guided by an Egyptian 
chronology that is based not only upon myths, but upon isolated 
myths and myths of comparatively recent construction, not one of 
them having regard for the division of the year into ten months, 
which was universally established in the Occident until it was changed 
to 12 months during the aera of the second Buddha. Their date for 
the Hycsos invasion is about the 15th or i6th century B. C, which 
is far too early. 

Josephus on Appion argued that the Hycsos were Jews. Biblical 
scholars have attempted to identify them with the Hittites of the 
Bible. Rev. Dr. Sayce identifies the Hittites with the almond-eyed 
pig-tailed race sculptured on the rocks of Hamathand other places in 



^RAS. Ill 

Syria and Mesopotamia. Mr. John D. Baldwin and others have writ- 
ten what Prof. A. Schwartz calls historical romances on the Hittite 
race. In truth, the facts thus far known do not warrant the infer- 
ences of these writers. Pococke, 198, identified the Hycsos with 
the Hucsos or Scythic tribes of the Oxus. The 511 years of Mane- 
tho (if indeed there is any truth in it at all) may simply mean the in- 
terval between the Hycsos invasion, circ. B. C. 1169-06, and the 
Scythic withdrawal, circ. B. C. 633. The monuments of Egypt af- 
ford no corroboration of the assertion that any foreign race domi- 
nated the land for so long a period as 511 years. 

B. C. 1104, Cliiiia. — First recorded observance of winter-solstice 
festival, worship of Joss or Josh, in China, B. C. 1 104-1098, reign of 
Wu-wang, Chow (Tcheou) dynasty. Fergusson, 96. 

B. C. 1100, China. — Astronomical observations at Loyangin. La- 
place, " Connaissance des Temps." Probable date of the first intro- 
duction of Brahmo-Buddhism into China. 

B. C. 1078, Rajputana. — Alleged Digambara sera of the Cali- 
joga. Wilford. Probably a blunder. 

B. C. 1076, Persia. — ^'>ra of Zoroaster, according to Xanthus, 
who places him "600 years" before Xerxes. See B. C. 947, 590, 
etc. 

B. C. 1036, India. — Swetambara Jain cera of les Chrishna, son 
of Maia. See B. C. 12 19 and 1036, China. The Benedictines have 
lowered this incarnation down to A. D. 65! 

B. C. 1036, China. — ^'ra of Fod, son of Maya, who was born in 
India, according to an alleged account of the Chinese, viz., "28th 
cycle, 41st year, or B.C. 1036." Asiat. Res.,vol. II. Fod is the Chinese 
name of Buddha. Volney says there was no F sound in Chinese 
and that this name was pronou^nced Bod. The 28th cycle and 41st 
year given in Asiat. Res. is a Chinese date. It agrees, not with B. C. 
1036, but with B. C. 677. This is a Jovian cyclical date adapted to 
Buddho-Brahminical purposes. B. C. 1036 is a Swetambara aara of 
the first Buddha. 

B. C. 1027, Cashmir. — ./lEra of Fod, who was born in Cashmir. 
De Guignes, Asiat. Res., vol. II. 

B. C. 1027, India. — ALra. of the first Buddha, according to Sir 
Wm. Jones, Klaproth, Volney and others, evidently from De Guignes. 
"The Buddha of 1027 B. C. is identically the same as the one who 
died 554 B. C. As far as real chronology is concerned, the recent 
date is alone in use." The Pandits' " Chron." p. xiii. That Buddha 
died B. C. 554 is a religious belief; not an historical fact. 



112 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 1000, Japan. — ^ra of Buddha, Buddhso, Budz, or Siaha, 
possibly derived from Mat-sya, a surname of les Chrishna, the in- 
carnation of lesnu or Vishnu, whose zodion is the Fishes. He was 
born at Sicka (the country of the heavens) about B. C. looo. At 
the age of 19 he became a hermit and taught the doctrines of immor- 
tality and of future rewards and punishments. He prescribed five 
precepts: Thou shalt not kill, steal, commit adultery, lie, nor drink 
strong liquors. He wrote upon palm leaves the materials of a sa- 
cred book called Fodekio (pronounced Bodekio) which his disciples 
venerated as we do the Bible. A gigantic gilded image of this Bud- 
dha, seated on a lotus flower, is erected in the temple of Kata-isi. 
Bell's Pantheon. It should be added that in this image, as in most 
other images of Buddha, he is represented with woolly hair; a pecu- 
liarity that enables this divinity to be traced under all disguises of 
name and caprices of art. Bell's date for the Japanese Buddha is 
far too ancient. This is evidently the second Buddha, whose sera 
fell in the seventh century B. C. See B. C. 712 and 660. 

B. C. 1000, India. — Approximate tera of the original Hindu code 
of Manu. The variants, Manu, Manou, Mani, Muni, Manes, Manis, 
Mannus, Menes, Menu, Minas, Munnoo, etc., represent the name of 
an ancient oriental god, lawgiver, hero, or my thos, whose alleged insti- 
tutes are still observed by the Brahmins of India and whose imaginary 
sera stands at the head of the false chronologies both of that country 
and of Egypt. The Hindu Code of Manu has been frequently altered, 
the last time apparently about A. D. 500. It was translated from 
Sanscrit into Persian and thence into English in 1775. An English 
translation was made direct from the Sanscrit in 1794. The work 
in its present form has evidently undergone many alterations, some 
of which are regarded by Buller (ed. 1884) to be as recent as the 
date above mentioned. But there can be little doubt that the bulk 
of the work belongs to a remoter antiquity. Colebrooke ascribes it 
to the i6th century B. C. ; Vivien de Ste. Martin, 13th to 12th century 
B. C. ; Sir Wm. Jones, to some period after the loth century B. C. ; 
and H. H. Wilson, to the 9th century B. C. For the more extreme 
views of Miiller and of Cowell, consult Marsden's "Num. Orient," 
ed. 1874, p. 5. In the Greek mythology of the republican period 
Manes was multiplied and degraded into a plurality of gods, spirits 
or genii, whose common mother was Mania and whose beneficence 
is first invoked in the alleged poems of Orpheus. This would assign 
the Greek conception of Manes to a period prior to the Fall of 
Troy. But Aristotle's doubt concerning the reality of Orpheus and 



^RAS. 113 

of the genuineness of his hymns deprives these dates of any certain 
historical basis. We can only conclude with safety that the Greek 
knowledge of Manes ascends to and probably beyond the age of 
Solon, and coincides with that of the second Buddha; while in the 
Orient, his code was in vogue several centuries earlier. 

B. C. 977, China. — Aera of Fod, who, according to the Chinese, 
was born in India, "23rd cycle, 41st year," or B. C. 977. Father 
Du Halde, Hist. China, I, 317. A Jovian date. 

B. C. 959, Tartary. — Aera of Barkhan or Buddha, who was born 
in Tartary. A Jovian date. 

B. C. 959, Tibet. — Aera of Fod, who was born in Tibet. Cas- 
sitii, Asiat. Res., II, 27. This is really a Jovian date, or a date 
arising from the Jovian cycles, and as such is really not connected 
with the chronology of Buddha. 

B. C. 955, America. — Aera of Votan, the Messiah of Yucatan, 
who descended from Imos, of the race of Chan, or the Serpent. 
Votan introduced the religious Mysteries and after having appointed 
Zamna as his successor, he died and was buried in Isumal, to his sepul- 
chre, in which town, pious pilgrimages were still made by the natives 
at the period of the Spanish conquest. It was Zamna, his disciple, 
who conferred upon the country the name of Maayha. Am. Encyc. 
Brit. His followers erected the temple at Palenque on which is 
sculptured in gypsum an immense Latin cross with a figure on each 
side of it. Doane, 348. It is not diiificult to recognise in the hero 
of this legend the Cashmirian, Tibetan and Mongolian Wotan, Woden, 
Barkhan, Fod, Buddha, or Quichena, son of Maia, whose aera in 
those countries is variously fixed in B. C. 1036, io'27, 977, or 959, 
(q. v.), these variations being probably the result of defective or 
altered calendars. It should be stated, however, that the ^ra of 
Votan appears to be Jovian, and not Buddhic. The name Imos, or 
Jamos, also belongs to the Jovian cult. Cox's "Aryan Myth.," II, 
81. The following dates relating to America, are, with one excep- 
tion, given by the same authority, which, however, does not vouch 
for their correctness. (Cf. A. D. 700 and 722). 
297 B. C. — Quetzalcoatl, Cukulcanor Bacob, thejMessiah, appears in 
Yucatan. This seems to have been a re-incarnation of Votan. 
The date is supplied by conjecture, being one Hindu divine 
year after the native sera of Votan. The name Quetzalcoatl 
may be a corruption of Quichena. 
174 A. D. — Yucatan; dispersion of the followers of Quetzalcoatl. 
174. — Guatemala; arrival of four Tutul-Xius people from Tulapan. 



114 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

258. — Guatemala; others of the same sect arrive. 
488. — Hwiu Shan, together with a party of other Buddhist mission- 
aries from China (by way of Japan), land on the coasts of 
America and travel southward to the land of "pointed plants," 
(the maguey?) which may be Mexico or Yucatan. This date, 
unlike the others herein, is from a Chinese account. 
635. — The Chichimecs (literally maguey-suckers, equivalent to 
barbarians), invade Mexico from the north, that is to say, 
from Chicomoztoc, which some have identified with the val- 
ley of the Gila. 
686. — The Chichimecs established the Toltec empire of Mexico, 

with Nauhyotsin as their first king. 
895. — Re-appearance of Quetzalcoatl, as king of the Toltecs. Dis- 
satisfied with his subjects he establishes a new empire at 
Huitzilapan (now Puebla), after which he mysteriously dis- 
appears. (This is the rera of Quichena at Delhi. See A. D. 
890). 
945. — Nauhyotl, one of his disciples, reigns until this year as king 

of Huitzilapan; then dies. 
990. — (Circ.) Advent of Cukulcan in Guatemala. He appears to 

have been regarded as the same with Quetzalcoatl. 
1041. — Irruptions of savage Chichimecs from the North, who, in 1047, 

destroy the Toltec power. 
1070. — Death of Huemec Atecpanecatl, the last king of the Toltecs. 
1090. — The Aztecs start from what is supposed to have been Lower 

California. (See A. D. 1090). 
1 1 16. — They reach Chicomoztoc. 
1 1 77. — They enter the Valley of Anahuac. 
1325. — They found or establish the city of Mexico. 
1352. — Aera of the Mexican monarchy, of which Montezuma, who 

died 15 2 1, was the eighth king. 
1464. — Guatemala. The empire of the Tutul-Xius is overthrown. 
B, C. 947, Persia. — Aera of Magianism and of the "First Zo- 
roaster." Greswell, F. C, III, 178. This date is deduced by Dr. 
Greswell from no other testimony than the Persian custom, observed 
in a recent age, of painting paschal eggs! If there were any valid 
evidences, either of a "First Zoroaster" or of a belief in one, we 
should be rather more inclined to look for them at an interval of a 
divine year before the "Second" or principal Zoroaster. This 
would fix the first one in B. C. 1046 instead of 947. See B. C. 1076, 
590 and 389. 



B. C. 927, Greece.— Aera of Homer, B. C. 962-27. Clinton, 
F. H., I, 362. Mr. F. A. Wolf in his "Prolegomena," 1795, proves 
pretty conclusively that the epics of Homer were collected and "ar- 
ranged " by Pisistratus about 550 B. C. In the present state of our 
knowledge it is impossible to say how far this revision extended. 
Clinton fixes the «ra of Hesiod a century later than Homer. 

B. C. 895, Aegina.— Silver coined into money by Pheidon of 
Argos. Parian Marbles, sub anno. But see B. C. 748 herein. 

B. C. 884, Attica.— Five-year Olympiads— pentaeteris— revived or 
else established in the reign of King Iphitus; epoch, the summer 
solstice. This great festival is incidentally said to have been origi- 
nally established by Jasius B. C. 1406. According to Callimachus, 
it was revived by Iphitus, whose sera, in the equivalent of B. C. 884, 
is fixed by Erastosthenes. As the festival appears to have been in- 
tended to commemorate the discovery of the equable year (the year 
of 365 days) or else the establishment of an equable calendar, the 
attribution to Jasius, or rather to the period of Jasius, may be cor- 
rect; yet we have no positive reference to the pentaeteris earlier 
than Iphitus. This occurs in Callimachus. Both Aristotle and Pau- 
sanias state that the terms (establishment or revival) of the Olympiads 
were sculptured on the Disk of Iphitus, a monument of a remote 
period to both of these authorities. The pentaeteris or quinquennial 
Olympiads were probably in Rome altered by C?esar to four-year 
(quadrennial) intervals, in which form they served to celebrate the 
Julian year which was instituted B. C. 48. Thereafter the pentaeteris 
took the name of Caesar's games and finally that of Augustan games 
until they were abolished by Theodosius A. D. 394. In Athens the 
quinquennial was changed to a quadrennial festival and games, in 
tempo Augusto. Josephus, Wars, I, xxi, 12. 

B. C. 884, Sparta.— Apotheosis of Lycurgus according to Era- 
tosthenes. Epoch, the summer solstice. Aristotle said that Lycur- 
gus was "contemporaneous with Iphitus and joined him in settling 
the cessation of arms during the Olympic games. " (Plutarch, in vita. ) 
This determination of his sera agrees with Herodotus, Thucydides, 
Cicero and Strabo. Thucydides I, 18, dates the legislation of Ly- 
curgus 400 years before the end of the Peloponnesian war. To this 
date should be added 63 years. This will make it about B. C. 867. 
Lycurgus was a king of the dynasty of Procles; his mother's name 
was Dion-assa; he pretended to have obtained his code of laws from 
the god Apollo; the priestess of Delphi said that Lycurgus was the 
beloved of Jupiter and more God than man; Plato says in the Third 



Il6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Book of his Laws that Lycurgus was a divine spirit residing in a hu- 
man body; among other reUgious rites he introduced flagellation at 
the altars of Diana Orthia. Cicero, Repub. II, lo, says that Lycur- 
gus was a contemporary of King Iphitus and lived io8 years before 
the first (quadrennial) Olympiad. This is equal to the first year of 
the quinquennial Olympiads. Both Thirlwall and Grote regard Ly- 
curgus as a real personage of the ninth century B. C. 

B. C. 880, Clialdea. — Ragosin's date for the 8-rayed Disk of 
Shamash (the Sun) found at Sippara, by Rassam, in 1881. 

B. C. 876, Rome. — Aera of Romulus, according to Ennius. See 
B. C. 814. 

B. C. 841, China. — Winter solstice. Beginning of the 60-year 
cycles calculated by Sze-ma-ts'ien, the astrologer, who lived in the 
reign of the divine Woote, B. C. 86, q. v. ; Freret, XIII, 303-4. B. C. 
841 is indeed a Jovian date, but it does not appear to be connected 
with the avatars or avataras of that sacred personage (Woden) whom 
Woote seems to have personated. 

B.C. 835, Tibet. — Aera used at L'hassa. Pandits' "Chronol- 
ogy." 

B. C. 828, India. — Parasuramic cycle; more properly, B. C. 825, 
q. V. According to one astrological system, these cycles begin B. C. 
4825, q. V. According to another system, they begin B. C. 11 76. 
The cycles are millenial. See Ch. VIII, under cycles of 1000 years. 

B. C. 828, Athens. — Revival of the five-year Olympiads, by Iph- 
itus, according to Callimachus. 

B. C. 827, China. — According to Liu-shu, A. D. 1068, in his 
book called "Wai-ki," the "certain" or strictly historical sera of 
China, began this year. Fergusson, p. no. 

B. C. 816, Etruria. — The Etruscan sera, according to Varro. See 
"Middle Ages," Appendix S. See also B. C. 814. 

B. C. 816, Alba. — Aera of Procas. Henry Dodwell, " De Veteri- 
bus Grsecorum Romanorumque Cyclis. " 

B. C. 816, Rome. — Aera of the Foundation, according to Tim- 
seus. See B. C. 814 for a variant date. 

B. C. 814, Carthage. — Aera of Carthage, according to Timseus, 
in Dio. Hal. I, 74. Niebuhr says B. C. 826. 

B. C. 814, Rome. — Aera of Romulus, according to Timseus, in 
Dio. Hal. I, 74. This ^ra is corroborated by Ennius's expression of 
"about 700 years ago;" by Cicero's sera of Carthage; by Cato, in 
Greswell, F. C, I, 8; by the Alban, Etruscan and Carthaginian vul- 
gar seras; by the cycles of SyllaandPiso; and by the other evidences 



.ERAS. 117 

furnished in chapter II. This year, or more likely B. C. 816, seems 
to have been the correct aera of Romulus, as was believed during the 
Commonwealth, and down to the time of Augustus, who altered it 
to the equivalent of B. C. 738. At a subsequent date it was altered 
by the Latin Church to the equivalent of B. C. 753. For two years 
of the discrepancy, see B. C. 307. 

B. C. 776, China. — Eclipse of the Sun recorded in the Shu-king, 
sixth year of Yeu-Vang, dynasty of Tsheou, Bunsen, III, 381; 
Hales, I, 202. 

B. C. 776, Attica. — Vulgar sera of the four-year Olympiads 
(named after Coroebus) which are said to have commenced at the 
summer solstice, which then agreed with Hecatombion ist, our July 
15th or 1 6th. It is alleged that they were afterwards altered to the 
first moon after the solstice and subsequently to the Roman July ist, 
the first of a month nearest to the anniversary of the Apotheosis of 
Lycurgus. These Olympiads were supposed to have been cited in 
Greek literature or monuments, about B. C. 260. Sir Isaac Newton, 
"Prophecies of Daniel." This is a deduction from the Parian Mar- 
bles, which were supposed to have been sculptured in the archon- 
ship of Diognetes B.C. 263; but they are now known to be spurious. 
See the (five-year) Olympiads, under the years 1406, 1219, 1183, 884 
and 828. The four-year Olympiads were last used in existing litera- 
ture A. D, 440. 

B. C. 770, Scythia. — Scythian or Tartar Invasion of China; sub- 
jection of the Northwestern provinces; removal of the Chinese Im- 
perial Court from Shen-se to Honan ; death of the Emperor Yeu-Vang ; 
succeeded by his son Ping- Vang, who reigns over the distracted 
Empire until B. C. 719. The Nirvana of Buddha, which Fa-Hian 
places in this reign, 770-19, probably marks the Tartar Invasion. 
The history, Tchun Tsion, composed by Confucius, begins with the 
same period. Cunningham, op. cit. ; Du Halde, I, 323. 

B. C. 769, Sabinia. — Aera of Tat, or Tatius (a name of Buddha), 
legendary king of the Sabines. Tat reigned at Cures, which de- 
.j^rived its name from the Curetes, the Cretan priests of Maia and con- 
ferred it upon curates, cures, etc. (Cf. Homer, II., ix, 529; Adams 
Rom. Ant.) In B. C. 742 Tat (so runs the legend) became, with 
Romulus, joint-king of Rome, and, as such, he reigned six years, 
when, upon going to sacrifice at Lavinium, he met with a violent 
death in his 33rd year, A. U. 18. His daughter espoused Numa 
Porapilius. Echard, Rom. Hist. I, 15; Lempriere, Die. Biog. It 
was long ago observed by Dupuis, Higgins and other mythological 



Il8 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

critics, that a period of ^^ years was commonly attached to incarna- 
tions. This was an astrological conceit, founded upon the difference 
between the equable solar year of 365 d. and the lunar year of 354^., 
the interval being about 11 days; so that it takes about S3 years 
to carry the beginning of the lunar year through all the seasons to 
the same solar point and conjunction again. The interval between 
such conjunctions determined the earthly sojourn of the incarna- 
tion. This interval can be observed by comparing the Mahometan 
cycles with our own; the former being lunar and the latter solar. 

B. C. 753, Rome. — Anno Urbis Conditae, the Year of the Build, 
ing of Rome, according to Varro, hence called the Varronian date. 
A number of other determinations are mentioned in chapter III 
hereof. See also B. C. 816, 814 and 750. The epoch is universally 
fixed in Palalia, 11 Cal. May, translated April 21st. The date of 
the Building, or Foundation, also marks the incarnation of Romulus, 
or Quirinus, who was born of the god Mars and the vestal virgin, 
Rhea Silvia (sometimes Ilia, sometimes Romana, sometimes Roma). 
Romulus was a ten months' child of florid complexion and auburn 
locks; who soon after his birth, which occurred in a lowly cottage 
in Rama or Rome, was condemned, together with his twin brother 
Remus, to be drowned. The water shrank back from the odious 
crime and the infants were saved by a she-wolf, who reared them on 
her milk until they were rescued by shepherds. During his active 
career he was guarded or accompanied by 300 Celeres or Selecti. 
Not only his birth, but his death was miraculous; for being con- 
demned by the tyrant Amulius, he was torn to pieces, died, rose 
again and was seen by Proculus Julius walking after his demise, 
which occurred in his 33rd year Cicero, de -Legibus I, 2, 3 ; Ovid, 
Fasti, III. The Sun was eclipsed when Romulus expired. 

B. C. 750, Rome. — Anno Urbis Conditse, according to one ms. 
of Cicero's " Republica," II, 10, But see 814 and 753. 

B. C. 748, Assyria. — Deification of Tiglath-pil-Esar II. Vernal 
equinox? Altered in Babylon to the 27th year of Nebu-Nazaru, says 
Ptolemy. This modernization of date rendered the gera less ancient 
than that of the Babylonian Nebu-Nazaru, whose epoch was fixed at 
February 25th and afterwards at February 26th, B. C. 747. Albiruni 
calls this the ' 'Anno Astronorum Babylonia. " According to the Greek 
writers, the Babylonians called it their First Aera. It was used in 
Egypt until the Augustan period, when the head of the Alexandrian 
calendarwasshifted to the Roman August 26th, (See "Middle Ages," 
Appendix L, note 2), and finally to August 29th, corresponding with 



^RAS. - 119 

\ 

both Aswin ist and Thoth ist. The Babylonian alteration from 25th 
to 26th February was evidently made because the latter fell on 
Wednesday. This difference of one day is carefully noted by Rev, 
Dr. Greswell, F. C, II, 403, but without explanation. Gesenius 
says that the Babylonian Nebu is Mercury, which is the same as 
Buddha, Bacchus, etc. Rodwell in "Records of the Past," p. 201, 
says the same thing: Nebu is Mercury, or Dionysius. Among the 
variants of this Messiah's name were Nabon-Assar, Nabon-Issa, Nad- 
lus, Nebo-Sabesio, Nebo Nissa, and Nebo or Nebu-Nazaru, the last 
being from Censorinus. He is identified with the Hebrew Thammuz 
and Greek Bacchus. Nebu was foretold by the Babylonian prophets; 
his celestial or else his putative father was Asshur; his mother was 
the Chaldean Mylitta, or Greek Venus ; he was born at Nazaru (?) near 
Babylon; the Messianic star stood over his birthplace; flowers and 
music attended his nativity; he was worshipped by the Magi; a 
divine effulgence issued from his person ; after many trials and suf- 
ferings, endured in his mission to disenthrall and elevate mankind, 
he was condemned to a violent death. His disciples were 12; they 
fasted 40 days. When, on the vernal equinox, Nebu suffered the 
inevitable end, the sun was eclipsed and the earth rent with internal 
commotions. Nebu descended to hell to judge the dead; he rose 
again and ascended bodily to heaven. His principal sacrament was 
baptism; his emblematic plants or woods were the fir-tree and yule- 
log; his epigraphic symbols were the -{-, +, ° and mystic fan and his 
zodion was the Lamb. 

B. C. 748, Messenia. — Beginning of the "Third Age " or Aera; 
revolt of the Messenians in the "fourth year of the twenty-third 
Olympiad." Pausanias, Messenics, xv. This year by the five-year 
olympiads was B. C. 771 ; by the four-year olympiads and our present 
calendar, it was B. C. 685. Add the 78 years sunk by Augustus and 
subtract the 15 years added by the Italian chronologists, leaves 6$ 
years, which, when added to 685, makes 748 years B. C. The First 
Aera of Pausanius was evidently the Brahmo-Buddhic-Chaldean sera, 
commencing (by our present calendar), B. C. 2064. Herodotus 
(Euterpe, 145), calls this the sera of Bacchus. The Second Aera of 
Pausanius was the first "Brahmo-Buddhic-Chaldean," or Bacchic, 
B. C. 1406, and the Third Aera of Pausanias was the Nebo-Nazarene, 
or second Brahmo-Buddhic-Chaldean, B. C. 748. "After the revolt 
of the Messenians" . . . "iron began to be used in battle." Pau- 
sanias, Laconics, iii. 



I20 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 748, Aegina. — Clinton, F. H., I, 248, prefers this date for 
the sera and coinages of Pheidon. See B. C. 895. 

B. C. 747, Babylon. — Aera of the birth and incarnation of Nebu- 
Nazaru, or Nabon-Assar. Both Hipparchus and Ptolemy employ it in 
their works. The epoch of this sera was fixed, as noted by Ptolemy, on 
the Roman February 26th, B. C. 747, at noon, afterwards changed 
in Babylon to December 25th, B. C. 748. Both of these days were 
determined by the Roman astrologers to have fallen on the fourth 
day of the septuary week, which is the Hindu Buddha-war, or the 
Gothic Wednesday, the natal day and name day of Buddha, or Woden. 
It is rather singular that after the advent of Augustus the Roman 
writers, (Censorinus, for example), should have employed or even 
have referred to this foreign and antiquated ara of Babylon ; but if 
the difference between this aera and that of the olympiads of Iphitus, 
(which must anciently have been employed in Magna Graecia), be 
computed, it will be found that such difference closely corresponds 
with the number of years sunk from the Roman calendar by Augus- 
tus. In other words, there is reason to suspect that the 78 years 
sunk by Augustus from the chronology of Rome were 78 of the 80 
years between B. C. 828 and B. C. 748. 

B. C. 747, Argos. — Reputed aera of Phoroneus the Emancipa- 
tor, who sacrificed to Juno, yet was himself worshipped. Lutatius 
Placidus, in Stat. Theb. lib., IV, v., 589. Bryant, III, 65. Gres- 
well, K. H., IV, 191, believes that neither Inachus nor Phoroneus 
ever existed. This is quite possible. Pausanias, I, xxxix, 4; xl, 5 ; 
11, xxii, 12; II, XXV, 3, 4, 5; XV, 5; XVI, i. 

B. C. 747, Greece. — Aera of the worship of Adonis, the Saviour, 
also called lao, Thammuz, Hes-Iris, Osiris, etc. According to one 
account Adonis was miraculously born of the Holy Spirit and the 
virgin Myrrha, his putative father being King Theias. He was born 
in a cave in Syria. Doane 365, citing St. Jerome, says Bethlehem. 
According to another account Adonis was the son of the mortal Ve- 
nus, Mother of God, her progenitor being Julus, the son of JEneas. 
Hence she was also called Julius Caesar Dionaeus, or Dionaeus Mater. 
This account preserved the name of the Indian Houli, of which more 
below. Adonis was born on the Winter Solstice. In Rome this 
was the occasion of the great festival of the 25th December, called 
Natalis Solis Invicti (Birthday of the Sun, the Invincible). "All 
public business was suspended, declarations of war and criminal exe- 
cutions were postponed, friends made presents to one another, and 
the slaves were indulged with great liberties." (Rev. Dr. Gross). 



iERAS. 



During his infancy Adonis was enclosed in an ark and committed to 
the waves, with the object of destroying him. In this vessel he re- 
mained a year and a day before he was providentially rescued. Adonis 
was killed by a wild boar (Typhon) whom he had rashly wounded 
while hunting. This occurred on the Vernal Equinox. After being 
laid in his sepulchre, in which he remained several days, he rose from 
the dead and ascended bodily to heaven. The Death and subsequent 
Resurrection of this god were made the occasion of the most elabo- 
rate ceremonies both in the Greek states and colonies, in Ptolemaic 
Egypt and afterwards in Rome. The lights in the temples were ex- 
tinguished or turned down and an image of the god, bleeding from 
his death wounds, was placed upon a bier and bewailed in sorrowful 
hymns, the presiding priests anointing the mouths of the mourners 
with oil and saying: "Trust ye in the Lord, who by the pains he 
hath suffered hath procured our salvation." Plutarch, in Alcib. and 
Nicias says that the streets of Athens were filled with images of the 
dead Adonis, borne to the sepulchre by trains of women, who were 
weeping, beating their breasts and exhibiting all the outward marks 
of grief. Says Calmet in " Fragments " : "In these mysteries, after 
the attendants had for a long while bewailed the death of this just 
person, he was at length understood to be restored to life, to have 
experienced a Resurrection; signified by the re-admission of light. 
On this, the priest addressed the company saying: 'Comfort your- 
selves, all ye who have been partakers of the Mysteries of the Deity 
thus preserved, for we shall now enjoy some respite from our labours; ' 
to which were added these words, ' I have now escaped a sad calam- 
ity and my lot is greatly mended.' The people answered by the 
invocation ' Hail to the Dove, the Restorer of Light! ' " According 
to Pindar, B. C. 522, an image of the typical Dove was exhibited 
stretched upon a cross. Doane. Says Dupuis: " The obsequies of 
Adonis were celebrated at Alexandria with great ceremony. His 
image was solemnly borne to a sepulchre which served the purpose 
of rendering him funereal honors. Before welcoming his return to 
life, mournful rites were performed in memory of his sufferings and 
death. The great wound which he had received was shown, just as 
afterwards was shown the wound which Christ received from the 
thrust of a spear. The feast of the Resurrection of Adonis was cele- 
brated on the 25th March." Says Rev. Dr. Taylor: This festival, 
identical with our Easter, was called Hilaria and was celebrated on 
or shortly after the vernal equinox. Its name was afterwards trans- 
ferred from the religious festival to the term of the law courts, which 



122 ^ A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

began with the first day of the year, formerly March ist, now Janu- 
ary I St. Hence the January term is still called hilary. From the 
rejoicings which attended this festival we have the word hilarious 
with its cognates. This word, together with Yule and others, is the 
progeny of the Indian Houli. The rites of Adonis were publicly 
celebrated at Antiochand Bethlehem (St. Jerome, in Doane, 220), so 
late as the 4th century (arrival of the Emperor Julian) and at Alex- 
andria down to the 5th century (time of St. Cyril). Cf. Pindar; Plu- 
tarch; Julius Firmicius; St. Jerome; Rev. Dr, Adams, "Rom. Ant."; 
Rev. Dr. Gross, "Heathen Idol."; Rev. Dr. Taylor, " Diegesis|^" ; 
Dunlap, " Myst. of Adonis"; Murray, "Mythol."; etc. Although 
the pretended pedigree of Adonis connects his name with the sera of 
Troy, the materials of his worship cannot be traced further back 
than the 8th century B. C. , and even this date is suspiciously remote. 
As a matter of fact, the cult in the Greek States could hardly have 
originated more than a century or two earlier than the time of Pin- 
dar. Somes of its features are of a period several centuries later. 

B. C. 742, China. — Chinese ^ra, according to Greswell, F. C, 
I, 561. 

B. C. 738, Rome. — Nativity of Numa Pompilius. In B. C. 715 
Numa was elected king (Greswell, F. C, I, 354, prefers B. C. 714, 
or 713; but in IV, 156, he says B. C. 715). Numa afterwards erects 
a statue of Janus, the position of whose fingers indicated the num- 
ber 365; in B. C. 705, Numa institutes the festival of Rubigalia; 
and in B. C. 672 he dies, after a reign of 43 years. Livy, I, 21; 
Pliny, XVIII, 69, 5 ; XXXIV, 16, i. According to Livy, Numa was 
elected king in A. U. 39. He had espoused the daughter of Tat, the 
king of Sabinia, and was then a widower.. He must therefore have at 
least attained the age of manhood. The year assumed for his birth 
makes him 23 years old when he was elected king. The year also agrees 
with the false «ra of Romulus adopted by Divus Augustus. It does 
not follow from this that Numa was a myth, yet such is the opinion 
of several historians. As with most of the demi-gods, his epoch was 
purposely antiquated in order to procure for him and his ordinances 
increased veneration. Pliny states that Numa was, (whilst Livy says 
he was reputed to have been,) a contemporary of Pythagoras. Pli- 
ny's view of his sera is corroborated by the character of the astrol- 
ogy of Numa and Pythagoras, which, in both cases, was that of the 
Second Buddhic age. Pliny says that Pythagoras discovered the 
movements of the planet Venus in either Olym. 32, ;^^, 42, or 62, 
such being the variance of the mss. The equivalents in A. U. are 



^RAS. 123 

given variously in the same mss., at 109, 113, 142 and 222. These 
discrepancies of dates hardly warrant Niebuhr in doubting (as he 
does) the existence either of Numa or Pythagoras. Rather do they 
bespeak the use of an altered calendar and an object of superstition 
removed backward in time, without also removing his contemporaries 
and other environment. See B. C. 533. 

B. C. 736, India. — Pre- Augustan or Indian date of the Nativity 
of the Buddhic les Chrishna, Vicramaditya, Salivahana, or Buddha. 
See chapter VI, table B. According to Gen. Cunningham, the Chi- 
nese missionary Fa Hian (fourth century) fixed the nirvana of 
Buddha at this period, namely, in the reign of Ping Vang, B.C. 770-19; 
but this appears to be a mistake of the nirvana for the nativity. The 
practice of substituting the seras of mythological, for those who are 
assumed to have been real, personages and vice versa, has led to great 
confusion in the identification of Indian divinities. The aera given 
by Fa Hian for Buddha is really that of the Brahmo-Buddhic incar- 
nation, known as les Chrishna, the Salivahana, or the Vicramaditya; 
but since it has been also assigned to Buddha, there is no alterna- 
tive but to accept it in that sense. See B. C. 78. 

B. C. 721, India. — Aera of the Nativity of Buddha, son of Maya. 
He was born on the eighth day of the second month, the year begin- 
ning with the culmination of the Pleiades. This culmination occurred 
on Nov. 17, or Martimas (Haliburton). Hence the ''eighth day of 
the second month " was Dec. 25. Lillie, " Buddha and Early Bud- 
dhism," 73. Among the many names of this, the second or princi- 
pal Buddha, (who may have been in some respects historical,) are Is- 
war, les Chrishna, Gautama and Sakya-Muni. The Scythians and 
Goths called him Woden and the Greeks, Dionysios. His advent 
was foretold by prophets; his celestial father in India was the Holy 
Spirit, or in Burma the god Phralaong; his putative father was Sudd- 
hodana (India) or Thoodandana (Burma) who in India was a she -1- 
herd of the royal line of Maha Sammatu, and in Burma, a king. His 
virgin mother was Maya, or Maia. The Messianic star stood over 
the place of his birth, which was assigned to various localities, the 
favorite one being beneath a tree in or near the town of Kapilavasta 
in Nepal. But in recent years (1896) a monolith of Asoka has been 
excavated which marks or pretends to mark the exact spot of Bud- 
dha's nativity. This is at Manza Poderiya, in Nepal, about 18 miles 
south-east of Kapilavasta. London " Times," Dec. 26, 1896. Hali- 
burton's date for the birth-day apparently belongs to the First Bud- 
dha and the ten months' year, when the birth-day itself was Martin 



124 ^ N^"^ CHRONOLOGY. 

mas, afterward changed in respect of Sakya Muni to December 25th, 
both of these days having synchronised at one time or another with 
the winter solstice. Buddha was born among shepherds, to the ac- 
companiment of flowers, music and perfumes. He was recognized 
as the Expected One by the seers or Magi; his head was rayed; his 
complexion was black and his hair was woolly, A slaughter of In- 
nocents was ordered by the tyrant Bimbasara, from which Buddha 
happily escaped, to perform his appointed mission of bringing peace 
and happiness to the world. The proofs of his legitimacy or identity 
were his transfiguration and numerous miracles. His favorite disci- 
ple, of whom there were 12, was Arjon. The duration of his long 
fast was 40 days, some say **many days." He was tempted by the 
Evil One, Mara, but resisted his advances and devoted himself to 
the saving of souls. His doctrines are contained in the Baghavat 
Geeta, the Pittakattayan and other scriptures. "He preached to 
all mankind the mystery of suffering." Address of Supt. Gen. of 
Shway Dagon Pagoda of Burma, in Trubner's Record, 1880. After a 
life of great toil, austerity and voluntary sacrifice, Buddha was con- 
demned to death and he partook of a Last Supper with his disciples. 
(Bishop Bigandet, II, 36.) Buddha was cruelly murdered on the ver- 
nal equinox in the 80th year of his age, upon which occasion the sun 
became eclipsed and earthquakes and meteors shook the earth. He 
descended to hell to judge the dead; remained there three days and 
nights; rose again and ascended bodily to heaven. His principal 
sacrament was baptism; his flower the lotus; his epigraphic symbols 
the t, + and mystic fan; his zodion was the Lamb; the sign of his 
future coming is the White Horse; and his images sit cross-legged, 
with a button on the forehead and a svas-tica on the naked breast. 

B. C. 717, Assyria. — Sargon II. defeats the Scythians at Carche- 
mish or Karchemich. 

B. C. 712, Japan. — Nativity of Sin-mu, Iva-sikono-mikotto, or 
Sin-mu-ten-00, the first mikado, or sovereign-pontiff. Posthumous 
title, Jimmu. His reign began B. C. 660 (q. v.) and lasted until 
B. C. 585. His reputed age at death was 127 years. The Burmese 
Buddha (who is probably the same with Jimmu) died in the 128th 
year of the Eetzana sera. (This jera began B. C. 701.) Bishop Bi- 
gandet says the 148th year. See B. C. 552. 

B. C. 710, Media. — "Herodotus says that in 01. 17,2, Cyaxares 
was elected king by the Medes." Diod. Sic, p. 71. The passages in 
the extant copies of Herodotus relating to Cyaxares no longer con- 
tain any dates. 01. 17,2 is equal to 66 years after the year B. C, 



^RAS. 125 

776, therefore B. C. 710. Picot's date for the accession of Cyaxares 
is B. C. 635 ; Haydn's is B. C. 632, which is just 78 years later than 
that of Diodorus, an interval equal to the alteration of the calendar 
made by Augustus after Diodorus wrote his history. But this is not 
ail. Herodotus, I, 106, says that Cyaxares reigned 40 years, which 
according to Diodorus would be B. C. 710-671, yet it was in the 
reign of this same Cyaxares, as Herodotus explicitly informs us, an^ 
in the sixth year of his war with the Lydians, that " in the heat 0£ 
the battle, day was suddenly turned into night," and that "this phen. 
omenon, Thales, the Melesian, had foretold to the lonians, fixing 
beforehand this year as the very period in which it would take 
place." Herod. I, 74, 103. Apollodorus says that Thales was born 
in 01. 35,1 equal to B. C. 639, while Phlegon of Tralles, according to 
Suidas, places the acme of Thales in 01. 37, say 37,2, equal to B. C. 
630. The former of these dates would not make Thales the contem- 
porary of Cyaxares, if the latter lived so early as the date given by 
Diodorus. In order to agree with Diodorus, the date given by Phle- 
gon renders it necessary to regard Thales as being over 60 years of 
age before he reached his acme. As according to Lucian he lived 
to the age of 100, this is not impossible; but it does not agree with 
Herodotus, I, 75 and 170, who represents Thales as diverting the 
river Halys to enable Croesus to ford it during his expedition against 
Cyrus, circ. B. C. 547, or with his being in Ionia when Cyrus reduced 
the Ionic cities, circ. B. C. 546. See B. C. 585 for further remarks 
on the date of the eclipse predicted by Thales. 

B. C. 703, Persia. — Reputed aera of Giemshid, Gjemschid, Djem- 
schid or Jumsheed, the heaven-born king of Persia, who is said to 
have abolished misery and death during his reign, invented wine, 
performed numerous miracles and reconciled an equable and Julian 
calendar, by intercalating, every 120 years, one month of 30 days. 
Hales, 42, apud Hyde, 205; Fraser, Hist. Persia, 103 and 149; Gres- 
well, F. C. , II, 81. This last statement implies that Giemshid was 
familiar with a Julian solar year of 365^ days; also that at his 
epoch the year was divided into 12 months of 30 days (average) ; as- 
sumptions which barely and suspiciously come within the limits of 
probability. In point of fact the Persian calendar was reformed not 
in B. C. 703, but about B. C. 590, during the period ascribed to Zor- 
oaster. The 120-year cycle of the Persians may have been devised, 
as we know was the case in China, not to harmonize the equable and 
Julian year, at a time when the latter was unknown, but to regulate 
the church festivals of a year which had originally consisted of eight 



126 A NiaV (Jll RONOI.CM. Y. 

months each of 45 chiys, afterwards of ten months each of 36 days, 
anil fin.ally of 12 months each of 30 days. Rev. Dr. Plales' view of 
the antiquity of the 120-year cycle in Persia has been recently adopted 
by Prof. Flinders Petrie with respect to Egypt, concerning which see 
cycles of 120 years herein. D'Herbelot says that although since 
thcMoslcm conquest the Persians have used the lunar calendar of 
their conquerors, yet they still keep the Neuro/. at the vernal e(]vii- 
nox, as it was established by Giemshid of their first dynasty. Al- 
though this is (luite credible, it is not explained how it is carried out 
in practice, (licnishid is probably the same as Buddha, Jimmu, etc. 

B. C. 701, Ituriua. — Eetzana asra, in the 68th year of which Bud- 
dha was incarnated. Bigandet. Sec B. C. 632 and 552. 

IJ, C. (JJ)4, Iesygi^l. — Aera of the lesyges of Tarentum. After 
the Messenian war, B. C. 743-24, the Lacedcemonian youths, called 
Partheniix;, were expatriated and sent to the lesyges, a tribe (of the 
Veneti?) who occupied 'I'arentum, in the district of lesygia, or Mes- 
sapia, on the southern coast of Italy. These lesyges came from II- 
lyria, or Venetia. The place-names are those of their god les, or 
Taras, the Messiah. The lesyges (sometimes Ia/-yges, Jezides, etc.) 
of Italy had their own khans so late as B. C. 480, ami perhaps 
later. We hear of their settling Heraclea, in Ijucania, in B. C. 436. 
Stralx). V.I, iii, 1 to 3. The lesyges, or Messapians, had the follow- 
ing selllemciits: 1, in r)OS|)horus, on the north coast of the Palus 
Ma-otis, (Sea of A/of,) between the Tanais, (Don,) and the Cher- 
soni'sus (('rimca) ; 2, In Thracia, on the northern coast of the Eux- 
ine, near the nioulli of the l)anul)e, whence they conthu'ted the over- 
land trade to the East. Ovid, Tristia, II; 3, On the west coast 
of the yEgean sea, near Tanagra; 4, In the auriferous district on the 
Marissus, aPannonian affluent of the Ister (Danube); 5, At the head 
of the Ailriatic gulf, near Aipiihea and the auriferous district of the 
Taurici Norioi; 6, In Messapia, or Apulia, on the south coast of 
Italy; 7, At Cape Finistere in Spain and at the mouth of the Loire, 
near Cape Finistere, in Gaul; 8, In Menapia. They probably also 
had an emporium in Britain. With respect to the lesyges of Bos- 
phorus, Thracia, Illyria and Cape Finistere, they all tattooed their 
bodies. Herod. 'v. 6; Ency. Brit., art. "Khazares;" Strabo, VII, 
V. 4. This may also be true of the others, though we have no 
records of the fact. Tattooing is still a common practice along the 
shores of Illyria, France, Britain and Germany. The word itself sug- 
gests the name of Taat or Butldha. At Cape Finistere they were 
known both as Veneti and Ticts, or "iiaii\tec1 men." At about the 



^RAS. 127 

sera given above there were settlements or factories of a similar char- 
acter on all the coasts of Europe; such factories being probably 
united by a sort of Hansa; but with the exception of the tribes men- 
tioned above, we are not yet warranted in regarding the other trad- 
ing settlements as connected with the lesyges. The latter are prob- 
ably the same people as the White Huns, the Leuco-Syrians, etc. 
See the sera of Chersonesus and Santa Maura, B. C. 36, which is ex- 
actly one divine year after this date. 

lesides, Jezides, or Jezideen, is a name which to the pious and 
uneducated Mahometans of the present day merely means heretics, 
but which as we have seen has a far more significant origin. The 
Moslem authors allude to the Jezides of Turkey as a peculiar people 
who speak a language different from the Turkish or the Persian, yet 
somewhat similar to the latter. They say that there are two kinds 
of Jezides, black ones and white ones; they distinguish the white 
ones by remarking that they have no collars to their shirts, there is 
only a round opening for the head to pass through ; and they say 
that this opening is made in imitation of the circle of gold and rays 
of heavenly light, to be seen in the pictures of their supreme khan, 
or spiritual leader. The black Jezides are mostly fakirs or monks. 

The Turks and the Jezides cordially hate each other, and the 
greatest insult that can be offered to a Turk is to call him a Jezide. 
On the contrary, the Jezides are very partial to christians, because 
they believe that Jezide, their spiritual Master, was les Chrishna, 
whom they confound with Jesus Christ. 

They drink wine even to excess; they eat pork; they receive cir- 
cumcision only when forced to do so by the Turks; their ignorance 
is extreme; they have no books; they believe, however, in the chris- 
tian evangelists and in the sacred books of the Jews, without being 
able to read or possess them; they make vows and pilgrimages; but 
they are not permitted by the Moslems to have either churches, tem- 
ples, oratories, public festivals, or public ceremonies. Their rites 
are limited to singing sacred hymns in honour of les Chrishna and 
the Virgin. 

When they pray they turn towards the east, while the Turks turn 
towards the south ; they believe in the Devil and look upon him as 
God's agent in the other world. One point of their feligion is never 
to curse; for fear of the Devil's vengeance. 

The black Jezides are regarded as holy men and it is not customary 
to lament their death ; on the contrary, the custom is to rejoice. 
For the most part the blacks follow a pastoral occupation. They do 



128 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

not kill their own meat; but leave this to the white Jezides. All the 
Jezides march in troops like the Arabs, often changing their habita- 
tion, and living in tents made of goatskins. They arrange their tents 
in a circle, with their cattle in the middle. They purchase their 
wives, who ordinarily cost 200 ^cus each. This was also a custom of 
the ancient Veneti. Herod. Clio, 196. They are allowed to di- 
vorce their wives, if it is in order to become a monk. It is a crime 
among them to shave or cut their beards, no matter how little may 
be cut. Ovid in Tristia, says the same of the Getae of Pontus. Cer- 
tain of the lesidian customs bear a curious resemblance to our Chris- 
tian rites; for example, at one of their sacred feasts, their priests 
present to each a cup full of wine, saying to him: "Take thou this 
chalice of les Chrishna's blood." The other then kisses the hand of 
him who presents the cup and drinks from it. 

B. C. 692, Egypt„— True rera of Thoth (pronounced Tot or Taat). 
The Egyptian priests, in order to extort that veneration for the Bud- 
dhic god which is due to superior antiquity, carried the sera of Tot 
back to B. C. 1350, which is exactly one Brahmo-Buddhic divine year 
prior to this date. Greswell, F. C, III, 138. 

B. C. 691, Burma. — Sacred .^ra 01 Grand Epoch, said to have 
been established by An-ja-na, the grandfather of Gotama. The 
Pandit's "Chron." This is probably identical with the Eetzana 
sera. 

B. C. 677, India.— ^:ra of Fod, or Buddha. See B. C. 1036 and 
A. D. 65. 

B. C. 673, Syria. — ^ra of the Syrian Thammuz, Several com- 
putations fix the date between B. C. 673 and B. C. 659 in the Vulgar 
sera. Among the various names of this Messiah were Thamoez, 
Adonai, (Greek, Adonis) Adonissus, (Gr. Dionysios), Nazaratus, and 
Nizzuz, (Psalms xxiv, 8, Hebrew ed.); the last being evidently the 
same as Nissus. The worship of this incarnation, which may have 
come from Pontus and Babylon, extended during the sixth to the 
fourth century B. C. from Syria to Egypt and Greece. Thammuz 
was foretold by prophets; engendered by the Holy Spirit; conceived 
by the virgin Maya or Mylitta, and born on the winter solstice among 
shepherds. He was recognised by the Magi, had 12 disciples, per- 
formed numerous miracles, strove for the enfranchisement of man, 
fasted forty days, was grievously persecuted, and finally condemned 
to a violent death, upon the vernal equinox, on which mournful occa- 
sion the sun was eclipsed and the people "wept for Thammuz." He 
descended to Hell, rose again, and finally ascended to Heaven, there 



^RAS. 129 

to join the Father. His sacrament was baptism; his epigraphic 
symbols were the + and ■{-; and his zodion was the Lamb. The Lord's 
Prayer (in Hebrew, the Kadish) appears to have been borrowed from 
this cult. It is given in full by Massey, in his " Genesis," II, 469. 

B. C. 667, China. — ^ra.of Lao-kiun, or Lao-tsze, who is said to 
have been born in the third year of Ting- Vang of the Chow dynasty. 
The date given in T. W. Doane's "Bible Myths " is B. C. 604. The 
present date is attained by adding the 63 years still lacking in the 
Roman calendar. Lao-tsze was '*a divine emanation incarnate in a 
human form," He was "born of a virgin, black in complexion and as 
beautiful as jasper." He was "antecedent to the birth of the ele- 
ments in the great absolute, the pure essence of the Teen, the original 
ancestor of the prime breath of life," who "gave form to the heavens 
and the earth." Thornton, Hist, China, I, 134, 137. Chamber's 
Encyc. , art. "Lao-tsze." Both "king and people honor him with 
divine worship. " Le Compte. " Lao-kiun believed in One God, whom 
he called Tao, and the sect which he formed is called Tao-tse, or 
Sect of Reason." Doane. 

B. C. 662, India. — If the Digambara sera of Mahavira's nirvana, 
which is "605 years before Vicrama, " is reckoned from B, C. 57, it 
will make this date; and, as such, it has been adopted by some 
writers; but this is not the sera of Vicrama as meant by the Digam- 
bara Jains, who reckon from A. D. 78, According to this sect, a Ma- 
havira's nirvana falls in B, C, 527, q. v. 

B. C. 660, Japan. — Aeraof Jimmu, according to some chronolo- 
gists, among them Rev. Dr. Greswell, who fixes the epoch on Feb- 
ruary 19. Jimmu is none other than the second Buddha, or les 
Chrishna, who is incarnated every 658 years and was due to appear 
658 years after the first Buddha. There are no historical records of 
Japan earlier than the third century of our sera. See B. C. 1000 
and 712. 

B. C. 658, Scylhia. — Aera of les-anara, or Zanara, virgin 
spouse of God (Jupiter) and mother of the miraculously conceived 
Scythes (or lesythes), the Messiah of the great Scythian nation, 
which included the Sacse, Massaget£e,and Arimaspians. " Their vast 
and glorious empire extended from the river Araxes and the Caucasus 
mountains to the Euxine sea, (It therefore included the Colchians, 
Khazarians and Getse^. It also extended from the Indian ocean to 
the Caspian sea and even (at times) to Syria and Egypt. The Scythians 
established colonies in Paphlagonia, Pontus and Sarmatia, (Germany 
and the Baltic coasts). Their sacrifices to Mars and Diana (lesythes 



130 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

and lesnara) were called tauribolia. They conquered as far (west- 
ward) as Thrace. In the Island of the Hypoboreans they observed the 
cycle of 19 years (the Metonic). Their year begins with the vernal 
equinox. Zanara civilised Scythia, built numerous cities, enriched 
the people and extended the empire. Upon her death the Sacse 
erected to her memory an enormous pyramid, crowned with her 
image in gold and worshipped her as the Mother of God." Diod. Sic. 
B. C. 658, Crimea. — In this year the Heracleotes crossed the 
Euxine and established a colony in the Crimea, near the present Se- 
bastopol, which they called Cherronesus, or else Chersonesus, the 
Greek word for a promontory, and there they lived, under free institu- 
tions, for more than a thousand years. Encyc. Brit. , art. ' ' Khazares. " 
Herodotus represents the Heracleotes, or Heraclidre, to have been a 
Greek colony of Lydia, which descended both from Hercules, a 
Greek god, and from Belus and Ninus, who were Babylonian gods. 
(Cleo, 7). Probably the truth, behind this evidently mythological 
account, is that the Leucosyrians and Dionysian Greeks of Amisus, 
in southern Pontus, having been driven away, either by Tiglath-pil- 
Esar II, or else by Assur-bani-pal II, founded or else reinforced 
a colony in the great Scythian peninsular, which they named Crim- 
isus, since corrupted to Crimea. Near Amisus in Pontus were 
Heracleam, Sebastopolis, Enpatoria, and other places whose names, 
like Crimisus, the colonists transferred to the shores of Scythia. 
Here they met and intermingled with Ugrian traders, whose racial 
name was conferred by the Greek mythologists upon Agron, the 
fabulous progenitor of the Heracleotes. "For the Geloni were 
originally Greeks who, being expelled from the trading ports, settled 
among the Budini ; where they use a language partly Scythian and 
partly Greek." Melpomene, 109. They worshipped a Messiah, or 
Mediator, known to the natives as les Chrishna, to the Greeks as 
Bacchus, or Dionysios, and to the Egyptians as Hesiris, or Osiris. 
The people of the Crimea also worshipped the virgin mother of 
God. "The Tauri sacrifice to the Virgin all who suffer shipwreck. 
. . . The Budini are a great and populous nation. . . . The Geloni 
adorn their temples after the Grecian manner, with images, altars 
and wooden shrines. They celebrate the triennial festivals of Bacchus 
and perform the Bacchanalian ceremonies. . . . By the Greeks the 
Budini are erroneously called Geloni." Melpomene, 103-108. This 
form of worship may not have been in vogue when the Greeks first 
invaded the Crimea; yet the foregoing extracts leave but little doubt 
of its prevalence in the time of Herodotus, which was about B. C. 



/ERAS. 131 

450. The Dionysian cult subsequently extended along the shores of 
the Euxine until it eventually embraced both of the extensive prov- 
inces known to the Occident as Bosphorus and Pontus. When the 
Greek colonies of the Crimea had fully established an overland trade 
with the Orient, which they did by way of the Palus Maeotis, and 
the rivers Tanais (Don) and Volga, this commerce encouraged the 
settlement in the intermediate countries of tribes of Armenians, 
Caucasians, and Scythians, who, together, formed that mixed and 
very remarkable race, the Caesaris, Chozares, or Khazares, whose 
history stretches from les Chrishna to the period of the crusades, 

A. D. 1 106; and the emblems of whose religion are stamped upon the 
coins of Bosphorus and Pontus. That religion was Bacchic and Budd- 
hic. See A. D. 64. The term "Greek," as used in this connection, 
is from Herodotus and maybe misleading. It implies that the Greek 
Asiatic colonies were settled from Greece and therefore after Greece 
itself was settled by the Greek race or races; whilst the contrary 
may be the fact. The so-called colonies may have been first settled 
by this race and Greece proper may have been settled afterward. 
Such indeed is the opinion of Pococke, and apparently also that of 
Jameison, Buchanan and other writers on the subject. Moreover, 
they all agree with Niebuhr in the opinion that most, if not all, of 
the history of Greece, prior to the age of Solon, is either fabulous 
or else greatly perverted. Herodotus himself says that the Phrygians, 
whom we moderns have been led to regard as Greek colonists, were 
older than the Egyptians. Euterpe, II, 2. This of course makes 
them older than the Greeks of Europe. In another place (Mel. ^^) 
Herodotus affirms that a complete line of communication existed in 
his day from the hypoborean regions in north-eastern Scythia, through 
Scythia, Thrace and Greece to the Adriatic gulf, (Istria and 
Illyria), along which line offerings were sent by the hypoboreans to 
the shrine of Delos; and in Terp. 3 he says that "the nation of the 
Thracians is the greatest of any among men, except the Indians." 

B. C. 658, India. — Augustan date of the birth of Buddha. See 

B. C. 662, 660, 656, etc. 

B. C. 657, China. — Aera given by Greswell, I, 582. Epoch, 
February 16. 

B. C. 656, India. — Nirvana of Buddha, B. C. 656-33, according 
to an inscription cited by Gen. Cunningham and his translation of 
the years into the Christian reckoning. The year 656 is the Indian 
or pre-Augustan date of Buddha's death. The post-Justinian or 
Christian date of Buddha's birth was B. C. 673 and his death B. C. 593. 



132 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 656, Thracia. — Aera of Buddha or Mercury observed by 
the Chrestonians and other Gothic tribes of the Balkan Peninsular. 
"Their kings reverence Mercury most of all the gods; they swear 
only by him and claim to be descended from him." Herodotus, 
Terpsichore, 7. The same custom prevailed in England down to the 
reign of Henry II., whose pedigree, traced from Woden or Buddha, 
will be found at length in Palgrave's " Eng. Com.", p. 613. Among 
the customs of the Thracian Goths was the suttee. Herod., Terp., 5. 
This is clearly Oriental. The Buddhic or Bacchic cult is meittioned 
by Herodotus as the prevailing one among those tribes who occupied 
the Peninsular and the littoral of the Euxine, including the Crimea, 
where Justinian found it practised in the seventh century of our aera. 

B.C. 656, Chorasmia. — Conjectural aera of Kutaiba, who de- 
stroyed the ancient literature of Chorasmia and eatablished a religious 
schism. Albiruni. The various places named after this Chorasmian 
khan indicate the line of his conquests. Among these are Kutais 
in the Caucasus 60 m. east from Poti and Kutaiak, Kutaya, or Kiu- 
tapia (anc. Coteaeum) on the Pursak, an affluent of the Sakaria, the 
ancient Sangarius. The last named place was the seat of the wor- 
ship of the Piscenian Mother. See B. C. 645. 

B. C. 645, Assyria. — ^ra of Nana-Sab-Esia, mother of the gods. 
A cylinder of Assur-bani-pal, of a year which is believed to corre- 
spond with 645 B. C. relates that he captured the image of Nana in 
Elam, "a place not appointed for her," and restored it to "Urukh 
in Bitanna, " from whence it had been taken 1635 years before. (Ra- 
gozin's " Chaldea," 195.) It is related by the Greek writers that, 
during the Trojan war, the date of which varies between 1334 and 
1129 B. C, the king of Assyria drove -the Venetians out of Pontus 
and Cappadocia. This was not 1635 years; it was at the most about 
635 years before Assur-bani-pal. The Venetians were probably al- 
lied to the Urtuki Turcomans of Pontus and Bithynia, worshippers 
of Nana-sab-Esia. It was a common practise of the ancients after 
ravaging a hostile country, to bear away its gods and display them 
in the ensuing triumph, a custom which survived to the aera of Na- 
poleon Buonaparte and which was certainly not neglected by the 
sovereigns of Assyria. At a later aera, Assur-bani-pal restored an 
image of Nana to the " Urukh in Britanna, " from whom (not whence) 
it had been taken. Meanwhile the goddess had been doing duty in 
Elam, where the Chaldean priests had carved a false date upon it, a 
species of pious fraud, which, as the Rev. Mr. Sayce shows ( ' 'Assyria", 
189), Assur-bani-pal himself did not disdain to practice. Nana's 



iERAS. 



^33 



shrine in Bithynia was at Piscenus; and her image, or symbol, could 
scarcely have been older than the period assigned to the Trojan war. 
Similar to this is the fable of Orestes, himself a Scythian god, who 
was instructed by the Delphic oracle of Apollo to remove the image 
of Diana, mother of God, from the Taurica-Chersonesus to Greece. 
Pausanias, III, 3. The Greeks and Romans employed the same prac- 
tice. See B. C. 297 and 205. 

B. C. 645, Persia. — Approximate ?era of the worship of Mithra 
in Persia. This cult may be traced backward to India. Maurice, II, 
204. Vestiges of it in that country may reasonably be assigned to 
nearly a century and a half earlier than in Persia, say to about B. C. 
780. It was introduced into Rome during the first century of our 
sera. Lajard. Another name for Mithra or Mithras is Nanaia, or 
Nana; although contrariwise Langlois and others hold that Nana 
was a female god, the divine mother of Mithras. Ragozin says that 
Nannan was the Chaldean name for the moon; therefore the name 
of a female; an opinion which is greatly strengthened by the femin- 
ine appearance of all the Mithraic images now extant. It may be 
that Mithra and Mithras were the female and male embodiment of the 
same divinity. Assuming (in deference to common opinion) that 
Mithras was a male, he was, according to Dupuis, Doane and oth- 
ers, the son of the virgin Nana; foretold and welcomed by the Magi; 
miraculously born in a cave; on the winter solstice (Mirgan, Pers., 
Natalis Solis, Rom.); head rayed; complexion fair; tresses flowing; 
number of disciples, ten, afterwards 12. After a life of suffering, 
endured for the sake of mankind, Mithras died a violent death on 
the vernal equinox; descended to the nether world; remained three 
days and nights; rose again and ascended bodily to heaven. Sacra- 
ments: eucharist and baptism; plants: palm, cypress, pine and lily, 
Epigraphic symbols: ?, t; zodion, the Bull. Attribute: Phrygian 
cap. Mithra is usually represented slaughtering the Bull. 

B. C. 644, India. — Death and Ascension of the Buddhic les 
Chrishna. He was born in the tribe of Yadu (Vishnu Purana, V, 23) 
at Gorakpore in Rajputana and was the issue of les-Saca the Sun- 
god and the virgin Vasudeva. His complexion was black; his hair 
v/oolly. At the age of 29 he became an ascetic and preached social 
equality, charity, meekness, and faith in immortality. He performed 
many astonishing miracles, declared that he had created himself, 
died in Kusinara at the age of 80, descended to hell, rose again and 
finally ascended bodily to heaven. These dates and some of the de- 
tails are from Ramchandra Gosha, while others are from Wilson and 



134 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Sir Wm. Jones, the last of whom, however, alludes to the Brahmini- 
cal ]es Chrishna, whose cera he fixes during the Mahabharata wars. 
B. C. G44, Itorne. — Aera of the re-incarnation of lanus Quirinus. 
This is the name given to him by Ovid, Fasti, I, 69, and others. 
Virgil calls him " Father lasius, from whom our race is descended." 
Aeneid, III, 168. The name of Quirinus is probably a Roman cor- 
ruption of Chrishna, or Quichena, as lasius is of les. The date is 
that of the nirvana of Chrishna. The earliest bronze ace, or eis, or 
ies of Rome, upon which the effigy of lasius or lanus is cast, and 
which, according to G. Feuardent and M. Garrault, derived its name 
from the effigy, is of about the date B. C. 450. Its symbol, which 
iiccompanies the effigy of lanus, is the Cross. The statues of lanus 
represented the hands raised, with the fingers expressing the number 
of days in the equable solar year, viz., 365. Pliny, N. H., XXXIV, 
16 (7). The earliest explicit mention of the equable year in the Oc- 
cident is connected with Thales of Miletus, who is said to have "dis- 
covered it," though in fact it was probably known ages previously 
both to the Hindus and the lesiges. The adoption of a solar year in 
Rome is of a later date than Thales, therefore, historically, the wor- 
ship of lanus or Janus in Rome and the emission of coins with his 
image cast or stamped upon them, cannot be assigned to an earlier 
date than the fifth or sixth century B. C. According to Cato, Janus 
was a Scythian divinity. He was the son of the virgin Crissa, or 
Creusa, by the god Apollo. To avoid the displeasure of her father, 
(Ericlhonius,) Creusa entrusted her infant to an ark, which being 
trans[H)rtcd to the temple of Delphos, the priestess of that sanctuary 
reared it tenderly and eventually restored it to its mother. Janus 
was a ten months' infant; born in an humble cottage; and among 
shepherds. He was the patron of peace, of commerce and the vine. 
In virtue of his divine origin he became the Prince of Peace and the 
Doorkeeper of Heaven. We here have the mythology of several ages 
jumbled together. Plutarch; Fabius Pictor; Virgil; Ovid, P'asti, I, 
S3, 122, 141, 199, 254; Noel, "Die. Fable." The attributes of Janus 
were the same as those of Dionysios and Osiris. Faber, ' ' Pagan Idol. " 
He was also Bi-frons (two-faced) and held the keys of heaven, Diod- 
orus and Macrobius state that the temple of Janus in Rome was built 
by Romulus; probably a fable. This temple had four sides, each 
with a door and three windows, representing the four seasons and 
twelve months. Such a division of the year in Rome was in fact much 
later than the period assigned to Romulus. Sa3's Ovid: "When the 
Founder of the City divided the periods, he provided that there should 



yERAS. 13s 

be twice five months in the year," Fasti, I, 28. According to Livy, 
I, 19, the temple of Janus was built by Numa. But Numa's year was 
a lunar one and it consisted of (at the most) 354 days, which does 
not fit the 365 days represented by the fingers of Janus. These con- 
siderations fix the erection of his temple at Rome at a much later 
period. The real sera of Janus probably coincides with that of the 
Jain £era of les Chrishna and his worship was most likely introduced 
from the Orient by way of Pontus. See B. C. 12 19. Janus died a 
violent death at the age of ;^^ years. 

B. C. 641, Syria. — Death or nirvana of Thamoez or Thammuz 
(Buddha), as fixed by the post- Augustan or Christian reckoning. The 
nirvana of Thammuz was celebrated on the last day of the month 
Thamoez. The aera began on Ab ist. The division of the year into 
12 months and the week of seven days probably followed the intro- 
duction of this worship into Syria. See Maimonides, under B. C. 582. 
The alteration of the calendar possibly synchronises with the Armen- 
ian aera of B. C, 552, q. v. The two intercalated Syrian months were 
evidently Teshrin II and Canoon II. 

B. C. 639, Athens. — Birth of Solon, who died at the age of 80 
years. Greswell, K. H., I, 8, n. 

B. C. 638, China. — Chinese and Peguan asra of Buddha. Prof. 
Wilson. 

B. C. 633, Pontus. — Invasion of the Sacce, according to Herod- 
otus and Ctesias. The Sacre invaded Asia Minor in the reign of Cy- 
axares of Media and Psammitichus of Egypt, To these, as a contem- 
porary monarch, has been added Sardanapalus, who is identified with 
Esar-banipal, of Assyria, B. C. 668-626. Rodwell, in "Records of 
the Past," p. 287, prefers B. C. 625 for the date of this invasion of 
the Sacffi. They continued in Western Asia for 28 years before they 
were driven out. See B. C. 5«4al. 

B. C. 633, Burma. — Buddhic cera. According to Bigandet, the 
birth of Buddha occurred in the 68th year of the Eetzana aira, which 
commenced B. C. 701, q. v. 

B. C. 630, Persia. — Death of the first Zoroaster, according to the 
Abb6 Foucher. Mem. Acad. Ins., vols. 27, 29, 31, 39, He says that 
Zoroaster was born in Media, established his religion in Bactria under 
Cyaxares I, and was put to death by the Scythians in B. C. 630. 
Hence he was born about B. C. 710, The second Zoroaster appeared 
in the reign of Darius. 

On the other hand, M. Anquetil du Perron maintains that there 
never was more than one Zoroaster, born about B. C. 589 and put to 



136 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

death by the Scythians in 512. To this view Mr. Hyde and Dean 
Prideaux both assent. M. du Perron believes that the first Zoroaster 
of Pliny was no other than Horn or Hoomo, who flourished in the reign 
of Gjemschid. Mem. Acad. Ins., vols. 31, 37, For Pliny's views see 
B. C. 6369. For other opinions see B. C. 590. Niebuhr regards both 
the Zoroasters as mythical, 

B. C. 629, India.— Jain aera of Mahavira. The Pandits' "Chron." 
See B. C. 12 19. 

B. C. 619, Ceylon. — Cingalese sera of Buddha. Prof. Wilson, 
B. C. 612, Rome. — Approximate date of the birth of Servius Tul- 
lius. See B. C. 578. 

B. C. 610, Sicyon. — Approximate aera of the deification and 
worship by his subjects of Adrastus, son of Talaus, and son-in-law of 
Polybus. This worship consisted of prayers, sacrifices, sacred dances, 
the observance of festivals and the performance of tragic choruses. 
A shrine was erected to Adrastus in the forum or market-place of 
Sicyon, which shrine was still standing in the time of Herodotus. 
The Sicyonianshad previously worshipped Bacchus. Herod., Terp. 67. 

B. C. 604, China. — Aera of Lao-tsze. See B. C. 667. 

B. C. 600, Dioscurias. — A city of Colchis, at the mouth of the 
Charus, on the eastern shore of the Euxine, was founded about this 
time by the Milesians. Koehne, II, 437. The interest in this event 
arises from the corroboration it may afford to the colonisation of the 
Crimea by the Heracleotes, B. C. 658, 

B. C. 598, India. — Birth of Buddha, according to Taylor's " In- 
dia," p. 44. 

B. C. 592, Attica. — Aera of Solon and the Republic. But see 
B. C. 582, Down to this period the government of Athens was an 
unmitigated oligarchy. Aristotle. Until the period of Solon the 
Athenians "displayed no signs of that intellectual superiority which 
they were destined to assume." Clinton, F. H., I, viii. From this 
sera may be dated the rights of citizenship and suffrage, representa- 
tion in the legislature, juries, (discasts,) habeas corpus, marriage 
laws, and many other institutes of freedom and civilisation, since be- 
come familiar to the states of Europe and America, but wholly un- 
known to them previous to the age of Solon. 

B C. 592, Attica. — Lunar-solar octseteric calendar of Solon, be- 
ginning Gamelion ist=January i8-i9th at midnight B. C. 592, the 
year which followed the archonship of Solon. (Greswell.) January 
i8th is still the Armenian New Year day. This was anciently the 



^RAS. 137 

period of the Halcyon Days ; but various alterations of the calendar 
have shifted them about and finally shuffled them off altogether. 

B. C. 592, Ionia. — April 25. Beginning of the second Panionic 
cycle. Greswell, Kal. Hell., Ill, 375. 

B. C. 590, Persia. — Aera of Zoroaster: viz., 258 years before 
Alexander and 3000 years after the Creation, Albiruni, op. cit., 17. 
Greswell treats of the ' ' first " and ' ' second " Zoroaster, as the Hindus 
spoke of the first and second Buddha, the Macedo-Egyptians of the 
first and second Hermes and the Greeks, of the first and second Mer- 
cury. Stanley (" Chaldaic Philosophy ") translated Zoroaster, "Son 
of a Star." Others called him Zara. Suidas says he was also called 
Nazaratus. This is the same as Thammuz or Buddha, Plato, who 
calls him the son of Oromases, or Or-om-esus, or Son of God, says 
that he wrote a book called " Revelations," that after his death he 
rose again and lived ten days more, etc. ("Lives of the Ancient 
Philosophers," [Anon.,] pp. ii-iv.) Xanthus says that Zoroaster flour- 
ished 600 years before Xerxes' expedition into Greece, which occurred 
in Olym. Ixxv, i, or (B,C. 476), a reckoning that would fix Zoroaster 
in B. C. 1076. This is the sera of les Chrishna. Cf. Anonymous 
" Lives of the Ancient Philosophers." London, 1702; 8vo. : Br. Mu- 
seum Library No. 275, g. 8. But see herein B, C. 389. Zoroaster 
was foretold by the Magi ; his celestial father was Ormuzd, otherwise 
Or-om-esus, or lesdan; he was born in Bactriaon the vernal equinox 
(hilaria) to the accompaniment of flowers and music; he was recog- 
nized by the Magi as the Expected One and presented with flowers 
and perfumes; from his visage shone a divine light and his Messianic 
character was proved by numerous miracles. Though tempted by 
Ahriman, the Evil One, he pursued his beneficent mission, which was 
to bring true religion, peace and happiness to mankind; these prin- 
ciples being incorporated in his Avesta, or as it is commonly called, 
the Zendavesta. He had 12 disciples. His doctrines required or 
caused him to suffer a violent death, which occurred upon the winter 
solstice and was commemorated by the ceremonies of the Mega- 
lenses, or Mourners. His descent to hell and his sojourn there of 
ten days (some writers say three days and nights) appear to be of 
comparatively modern invention. So may also he his bodily ascent 
to heaven. His principal sacrament was baptism; his epigraphic 
symbol, the cross; his zodions the Lamb and Fishes; whilst his sec- 
ond (or third) advent was to be after three divine years. These have 
since expired. 

B. C. 584, Ionia. — Augustan date of the solar eclipse said to have 



138 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

been predicted by Thales of Miletus, the Christian date being B. C. 
601. Says Herodotus in Clio 74: "In the sixth year (of the war be- 
tween the Lydians and Medes, the latter being commanded by Cy- 
axares), it happened that in the heat of the battle, day was suddenly 
turned into night. This phenomenon Thales the Milesian had fore- 
told to the lonians, fixing beforehand this year as the very period in 
which it would take place." Greswell, K. H., VI, 653, declares that 
in the western world no eclipse was ever calculated from actual ob- 
servations before the time of Hipparchus, B. C. 160-45; ^^^ that the 
prediction of Thales was based upon the cycle of the eclipses, or Di- 
vine Year, which determines the round of eclipses once in 6586 days, 
without reflecting that a knowledge of the cycle itself could only have 
been derived from actual and oft-repeated observations previously 
made and therefore many ages before the time of Hipparchus. Sir 
G. B. Airy, and F. Partington, in Brit. Cyc. 1835, art. "Astronomy," 
fix this eclipse, Sept. 30, B. C. 610; Calvisius and Father Petau, July 
30, 607; Mayer, Costard, Stukely, Montucla, Kennedy ("Scriptural 
Chron.") and Hales, 603; Pingre and Bishop Usher, 601; Petavius 
and Larcher, 597; Pliny (Nat. Hist. II (ix), xii, says A. U. 170, which 
is equal to B. C. 584. Scaliger, Newton, Riccioli, Des Mignoles, 
Kepler, Strauchius, Manfredi, De Brosses and others say B. C. 585. 
Rev. Wm. Hales ("Scriptural Chron.") says the eclipse of 607 was 
only visible near the equator; that of 601, north of the Euxine; that 
of 597, north of the Caspian; while that of 585, " followed the course 
of the Mediterranean Sea and did not touch Cappadocia. " Though 
this is not impossible, it is difficult to see how it could do one with- 
out the other. If the story is true, Kepler, Newton, Riccioli, and 
Manfredi should be decisive as to the date of the eclipse; but in fact 
the date really belongs to mythology and not to astronomy. Thales 
predicted the eclipse, not from the appearance or movements of the 
heavenly bodies, but by means of the Divine Year. Add the 78 years 
sunk by Augustus, to B. C. 584 and it becomes the Indian date of the 
death of Buddha, or les Chrishna, the god of the Khazares, who at 
this period were the masters of the so-called kingdom of Media. The 
name of " Cyaxares, son of Phraortes " sounds so much like a Greek 
corruption of the "Khazares, sons of Prototh-Ies," that it is to be 
feared that this portion of the history of Herodotus is confused and 
unreliable. 

B. C. 584, Khazaria. — ^ra of Mad-Ies, son of Prototh-Ies, 
king of the Scythians. Herod. I, 103. F. Dubois de Montpereaux, 
in his " Voyage autour du Caucase," 1839, I^> 354) ^^J^ ^^^^ accord- 



^RAS. 139 

ing to the Georgian historians, these "Scythians " were the Khazares 
or Ghazares of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. 

B. C. 584, Ascalon. — Aera of the fable of Medusa. The first 
regnal year of Cyaxares, (son of Phraortes,) king of Media, the Ir- 
ruption of the Scythians and the Plunder of Ascalon, all occurred in 
B. C. 633. The Scythians (Montpereaux calls them Khazares), under 
Madyes, entered Asia Minor and marched through Syria to the con- 
quest of Egypt. Upon the frontier Psammitichus met them with 
presents and turned them away. On reaching Ascalon a portion of 
their number plundered the temple of the Celestial Venus, or Venus 
Urania, the oldest and probably the richest temple erected to the 
worship of this mother of the gods. " Upon the Scythians who com- 
mitted this profanation and upon all their posterity, the goddess vis- 
ited the punishment of effeminacy." (So is this difficult passage in 
Herodotus, I, 105, construed by Prof. Ch. G. Heyne, in Com. Soc. 
Reg. Getting., anni 1770, II, 28-44.) During the following 28 years 
the Scythians ravaged the whole of Asia Minor, but were at last 
driven out by Cyaxares, who inveigled and destroyed their leaders. 
In B. C, 548, Cyrus of Persia conquers Asia Minor, and in keeping 
with his tolerant attitude toward the Jews, as shown in the Bible, he 
restores the temple of Ascalon to the worshippers of Venus. We have 
here all the elements of the fable of Perseus, which was probably in- 
vented by the priests of the plundered temple. Madyes, upon being 
effeminated, becomes Madyesa, whom the Greeks call Medusa. The 
detachment who plundered the temple, being effeminated, become 
Amazons. Their ferocity is symbolized by the horrid aspect and ser- 
pent hair of Medusa and their ravages are compensated by the valour 
and generosity of Persia, or Perseus. The Persian priests did more 
than this; they deified Cyrus himself. See B. C. 1291. 

B. C. 582, Babylon. — Aera of Thammuz. Probable date when 
the Chaldean calendar was altered. This is believed to have been 
done by Nebo-Chadn-Izzar, whose father, Nebo-Pol-Izzar, had been 
appointed by Saracas, king of Assyria, as his viceroy, in Babylon. 
Pol-Izzar betrayed his master and plotted with the Medes, and in 
606 Nineveh was captured and the Assyrian empire overthrown. Af- 
ter a reign of two years as king of Babylon, Pol-Izzar was succeeded 
by his son, who had already defeated Necho of Egypt, at Karchemish 
and who subsequently (in 582) invaded and ravaged Egypt itself. It 
was probably after his return from this enterprise that Nebo-Chadn- 
Izzar made those alterations of the calendar which have been attrib- 
uted to the mythical Nebo-Nazaru, or Thammuz. The changed divi- 



140 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

sion of the year from ten to 12 months; the invention of the myth 
of Nebo-Nazaru; and the establishment of his sera, by dating back 
to B. C. 747 or 748; all appear to have been effected during this 
reign. On the subject of Thammuz (or Tammuz, or Tham-Ies) 
Maimonides has the following: Thammuz was a false Messiah who 
appeared before the king of Assyria and proclaimed to him that he 
had brought into the land the worship of the Seven planets and the 
zodiac of Twelve Signs. The king, indignant at his boldness^ or- 
dered him to be put to death. On the following night all the statues 
of the gods from every part of the world assembled in the Temple 
of the Sun at Babylon. The statue of the Sun, which stood amidst 
them all, was hurled to the earth, whilst those who surrounded him 
began to weep for Thammuz, and this weeping they continued until 
he arrived. Upon the following day, at dawn, each of the gods re- 
turned to his proper temple; in memory of which (strange occur- 
rences) the Salians (Crestos) weep for Thammuz on the last day of 
the month which goes by his name. Noel. Weeping for Thammuz 
is mentioned as an idolatrous rite in Ezekiel, viii. Greswell, II, 554, 
says the rite was observed on the first day of Thammuz, which he 
tallies with August 28th in the Julian calendar; but in his zeal to 
maintain a Hebrew Primeval Year of 12 months, Dr. Greswell, al- 
though a most learned and industrious writer, has closed his pages 
to the reception of almost all evidences that fail to harmonise with 
this theory. August 28-29 is a sacerdotal day of great antiquity con- 
nected with the worship of les Chrishna. It is also that to which the 
Romans assigned the death of their god, Augustus Dionysius. It is 
still the day of " Saint Augustine " in the Roman calendar. For the 
day of Thammuz, see B. C. 641. 

B. C. 582, Attica. — Most probable date of the archonship and 
legislation ascribed to Solon and described herein under B. C. 592, 
Suidas says in one place, Ol. xlvii, which is B. C. 588; Aulus Gellius 
says the 33d year of Tarquinius Priscus, which is equal to B. C. 582; 
Demosthenes intimates an equivalent date; "Eusebius" and "Je- 
rome" date the previous legislation of Draco in 01. xxxix, or B. C. 
624-620; while Diod. Sic, as quoted by Ulpian, says that the legis- 
lation of Solon was 47 years later, which is B. C. 577-73; Cicero, in 
Brutus, 10, 39, regards Solon and Pisistratus as contemporaries of 
Servius Tullius, who reigned B. C. 576-33; finally, Suidas, in another 
place, says Ol. Ixi, which is equal to B. C. 554. The mutilated 
Parian marbles do not give the sera of Solon, but they fix the ' ' tyranny " 
of Pisistratus in the archonship of Comias, which was 297 years be- 



^RAS. 141 

fore that of Diognetus. This is equal to B. C. 561. The mutually 
corroborative dates of Demosthenes and Aulus Gellius are regarded 
as furnishing the most reliable information on the subject. 

B. C. 578, Rome. — Accession of Servius Tullius. He was born 
about 612, the son of a captive woman of Corniculum; his father un- 
known. While yet a youth he was found asleep in the palace of 
Tarquinius Priscus, his head surrounded by a divine flame. Both the 
king and his queen Tanaquil having witnessed this prodigy, Servius 
was adopted by them and educated as one who was destined by the 
gods to fill an exalted station. Tarquinius betrothed his daughter to 
the youth, who, upon the death of his patron in 578, was called by 
Tanaquil to the vacant throne. During his reign, "the temple of 
Diana at Ephesus was universally venerated " and Servius, in order 
to foster the worship of this goddess, encouraged the building of a 
temple to her in Rome, among the principal rites of which was that 
of baptism in running water. The ambition of Tarquinius Superbus 
and the favours which Servius bestowed upon the lower orders of 
citizens led to his assassination by the nobles in the Via Cypriana, 
close to the temple which he had erected to Diana, B. C. 534,' aged 
about 78 years. Livy, I, 18 to 48; IV, 3. Higgins, Anal., II, 393, 
regards the story of Servius Tullius as mythical and as resembling 
that of the Hindu incarnations. With this opinion, the present writer 
cannot altogether agree. 

B. C. S76, India. — Aera of Parasara, a celebrated Indian astron- 
omer, according to the scriptural astronomer, Bentley. See B. C. 
1391 and 1181. 

B. C. 569, India. — Jain sera of Mahavira. " The Jains in some 
parts of India follow the ssra of Mahavira, their last Jain, whom they 
regard as the preceptor of Gotama, placing him in the year 569 B. C, 
and thus a few years prior to Gotama. Others call him the Disciple, 
twelve years later than Gotama. He was the 24th teacher of the 
Jain religion. No Jain inscriptions show traces of an exclusive 
chronology. They bear invariably, the Sumbat date of Vicramaditya. " 
The Pandits "Chron. " As the Sumbat ^ra coincides with B. C. 57, 
the 24th teacher and the date of 569 B. C., both appear to be after- 
thoughts. See B. C. 12 19. The Pandits' statement with regard to 
the chronology of the Jains does not agree with Col. Wilford, Gen. 
Cunningham, or Mr. Edward Thomas' work on " Jainism. " 

B. C. 567, India. — Augustan date of the death of Gotama, the 
Buddha, as given in Asiatic Researches. Duff Rickmer's "Indian 
Chronology" fixes Buddha's birth in B. C. 557 and his death inB. C. 



142 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

477. Rhys Davids assigns his death to about B, C. 412; Westergaard 
and Kern to between B. C. 388 and 370. These dates are entirely 
out of harmony with what is known, beyond question, of Buddhic 
laws and institutes. The lowest admissible date for the death (nir- 
vana) of the Second Buddha is B. C. 578. The Cingalese date of 
B. C. 543, though commonly used in works of reference, is 35 years 
wrong. 

B. C. 552, Burma. — Death of Buddha in his 80th year. The 
148th year of the Eetzana sera and commencement of the Religious 
sera. The world convulsed by earthquakes. Bishop Paul A. Bigan- 
det, in his "Life or Legend of Gaudama," furnishes the following 
account from Burmese sources: Buddha was a ten months' child, 
miraculously born of the queen Maia, impregnated by the god Phra- 
laong, his putative father being king Thoodandana. Immediately 
after his birth Buddha was recognised as of divine origin and was 
worshipped by the wise and powerful, among others by his putative 
father. He preached a Sermon on the Mount, converted the cour- 
tesan Apapalika, performed numerous miracles, partook of a Last 
Supper with his disciples and died in the " 148th year of the Eetzana 
aera, in the full moon of Katson, on a Tuesday, a little before day- 
break." He was conceived in the year 67 of the Eetzana; born in 
68, on a Friday; retired to meditate in solitude in 96, on a Monday; 
and became a Buddha in 103, on a Wednesday. After his ascension 
king Adzatathat abolished the Eetzana sera and substituted the Re- 
ligious sera beginning in the 148th year thereof, or that of the Buddha's 
death. 

B. C. 552, Armenia. — Aera of Armenia, which about this year 
was colonised by a mixed race of Khazares and Greeks, worshippers 
of les Chrishna or Dionysios. See Gotland, B. C. 90, and Armenia, 
A. D. 552. 

B. C. 551, China. — Birth of Confucius, according to Rev. C. 
Hole. But see 511. 

B. C. 548, Magna Graecia. — Apotheosis of Aesculapius, this 
being his 33rd year. He was born at Samos, some say Epidaurus, 
in the 50th olympiad, B. C. 580; his celestial father was Apollo; his 
virgin mother was Coronis; his putative father was Mnesarchos; he 
was exposed, when an infant, on a mountain, but saved by goat- 
herds; he was recognised by the sages as the Expected One, "the 
Saviour"; rays of glory encircled his head; he had 12 disciples and 
300 select! ; he performed innumerable miracles, and after many suf- 
ferings which he underwent for the sake of saving humanity, he was 



jEras. 143 

at last snatched up to heaven. The principal scene of his activity- 
was Croton, in Magna Graecia. Grote says that Aesculapius estab- 
lished a select aristocracy; Pococke says that his religion was 
Buddhic-Lamaism. Both of these views seem far-fetched. Accord- 
ing to Ovid, (Metam.) Aesculapius, after suffering death for mankind, 
rose again before his final disappearance. He was worshipped in 
Greece, Ptolemaic Egypt, Rome and several other countries of the 
ancient world. His zodion was the Lamb, and at the temple erected 
to his worship at Mendes in Egypt, this zodion was employed to rep- 
resent the god. One of his statuesque attributes is the serpent. He 
is sometimes referred to as Aesclepiades, 

B. C. 547, Egypt. — Real date of an Egyptian calendar in the 
British Museum, which, according to Greswell, is falsely and fraudu- 
lently dated in the " 56th year of Rameses the Great," whom he re- 
gards as a personage "who never had any real existence, except in 
the chronology of the monuments." F, C., Ill, 411, n. Judging 
from the calendrical alteration which seems to have been effected in 
Babylon B. C. 582, (q. v.) this year, B. C. 547, appears to mark the 
date when a similar alteration was effected in Egypt. 

B. C. 545, India. — Vira sera of the Jains. Duff Rickmers, p. 23. 
For Vira, read Mahavira. See B. C. 12 19. 

B. C. 544, India. — Sakya (aera) or nirvana of the Second Buddha. 
This is only one of many dates accorded to this sera in the Orient. 
It is deduced in the following manner: The Nirvana occurred 196 
years before Kandra Gupta, (the contemporary of Alexander the 
Great), B. C. 348. Hence 348+196 = 544 B.C. The Pandits "Chron." 

B. C. 544, Siam. — Nirvana of Buddha, December 25th. Mars- 
den, op. cit. and Stokvis. Greswell, I, 583, says B. C. 545. 

B. C. 543, Ceylon. — Nirvana of Buddha, Son of the Virgin Maia. 
Massey, "Genesis," 550. The favorite name of this incarnation is 
Sakya Muni. Taylor's " India," p. 44, says that Buddha was born 
B. C. 598. 

B. C. 543, India. — Sacred sera of India, Ceylon, Ava, Siam, etc. 
Pandits' "Chron." 

B. C. 543, India, Burma and Ceylon. — The nirvana of Buddha 
occurred 214 years before Asoka, according to the Indian records. 
Cunningham. But see B. C. 263. If the christian date of Asoka's 
accession is correct, viz., B. C. 263, this would place the nirvana of 
Buddha in 477, whereas the common (christian) date in Ceylon and 
Burma is 543. The difference of 66 years is noticed, but not ac- 
counted for, by Gen. Cunningham. An explanation is offered herein 



144 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

under the year B. C. 814, "Rome." The puranas date the accession 
of Asoka in 311 or 312 of the nirvana. If we add the oldest date 
of Asoka, B. C. 266, and the 6^ years dropped from the calendar, 
this would place the nirvana in B. C. 641. 

B. C. 534, Rome. — Calendar ascribed to Numa. See B. C. 452. 

B. C. 533, India. — Nirvana of Mahavira, according to the Swet- 
ambara sect of Jains, who date it 470 years before Vicrama, who 
was born, by the christian calendar, B. C. 6;^. This reckoning 
throws Mahavira into B. C. 533. The Digambara Jains fix the nir- 
vana of Mahavira 605 years before the aera of a Vicrama, who is 141 
years later than him of B. C. 63, hence his date is A. D. 78. This 
computation throws Mahavira into B. C. 527. Both of these dates 
are from Gen. Cunningham. 

B. C. 533, Persia. — Persian sera. Deification of Cyrus the Elder. 
He was the son of god, miraculously born of the virgin Mandane, 
the daughter of Astyges, his putative father being Cambyses. (Herod. 
Clio., 107, 204). Owing to the prediction of the Magi, his grand- 
father issued orders for his destruction while he was yet an infant. 
In pursuance of this cruel decree Cyrus was given out to be put to 
death, but was providentially saved by a shepherd. After some years 
of service as a pastor, Cyrus was recognised as the predicted heaven- 
born prince of the world, and as such was invited to ascend the 
throne of Persia. The name of his mother, as it appears in the ex- 
tant Mss. of Herodotus, may be a corruption of Mania, Mariana, etc. 
This name appears in Mariandynia,a province and people of AsiaMinor 
under the sway of Cyrus, probably named after Maryamma or else 
her namesake, the Pescenuntian mother. See B. C. 205 Rome. The 
Mariandynians were apparently the same people alluded to in Polym- 
nia 76, whose name is effaced in the mss., and who, like the Carians, 
or Leleges, wore peculiar crests upon their horned helmets. Herod. 
Clio, 171; Strabo, voc. Leleges. Cf. Abbe Halma, on Ptolemy, p. 
208. Cyrus was born about B. C. 594, ascended the throne 569, was 
deified and worshipped in 543 or 533, and died in 529. According 
to Mirkhond, Cyrus did not die at all; he disappeared supernaturally. 
Diodorus says that he was crucified. 

B. C. 533, Crolona. — Pretended advent of Pythagoras and his 
twelve disciples, whom the Benedictine monks of a recent age adroitly 
alluded to as the "Twelve Spheres." These numbers were obtained 
from an anonymous biographer whom Sir Geo. Cornewall Lewis dis- 
credits. Instead of 12, the Pythagoreans held that the number 10 
was alone perfect. They had ten (not 12) celestial bodies, viz., the 



iERAS. 145 

five planets, sun, moon, earth, heavens and the antichthon, the latter 
an invisible body that sometimes caused eclipses. Roth regarded 
Xenophanes, Anaximenes, and Pythagoras as exact contemporaries, 
fixing the sera of the latter B. C. 569-470. Pauly fixes his birth, 
580-68. Meiners fixes his birth in Olym. xlix, 2 and death in Olym. 
Ixviii, 3, or Ixix, 2. In the quadrennial olympiadsthis would be 583-506 
or 503, while in the quinquennial olympiads it would be 643-547 or 
543. See B. C. 738. Lewis regards the account of the travels of 
Pythagoras in Babylon and the East as ''too suspicious to fulfil the 
conditions of historical credibility. " The 300 Select! of Pythagoras 
and Pisistratus appear in the 300 Celeres of Romulus and Tamerlane. 

B, C. 527, India. — Nirvana of Mahavira, according to the Di- 
gambara sect of Jains. See B. C. 1219. 

B. C. 527, Athens. — Death of Pisistratus, who had been worship- 
ped during his lifetime as an incarnation of the deity and had reigned 
absolutely ^s years, during which time he altered and published the 
poems and theogeny ascribed to Homer. Herodotus; Cicero; Pau- 
sanias. He was guarded by 300 Selecti. Polysenus. 

B, C. 525, Egypt. — Conquest and plunder of Egypt by Cambyses, 
k. of Persia, who for his disrespect to the native gods, was loaded 
with infamy by the priests. Diodorus says that the Persians reigned 
in Egypt 135 and the Macedonians 276 years; but as this does not 
agree with the received chronology, it has yet to be seen which is 
right. 

B. C. 521, Persia. — Aera of Darius, son of Hystapses. He was 
born about 547 ; ascended the throne and was deified about 521 ; con- 
quered Babylon, 517 (Greswell prefers 520-19); reconnoitered the 
valley of the Indus, 515; and in or about the same year proclaimed 
himself and demanded to be worshipped, as a Manifestation of the 
Deity. Revolt of the lonians, 499; suppression of the revolt by 
Darius, 498; revolt of the Scythians (Goths), 499; Scythic invasion 
of Asia Minor, 495 ; ineffectual invasion of Scythia (Thracia) by 
Darius, 495; his Retreat, 494; Darius defeated by the Greeks and 
allies at Marathon, 490; conquers Egypt, where he is worshipped as 
god; (Diodorous, book I;) and dies in 485. The Greek writers in 
suppressing some of these particulars and concealing the fact that 
Darius was their lawful suzerain, have greatly perverted the meaning 
of ancient history. 

B. C. 521, Lydia. — Aera of Lydia. Humphreys' "Coin Manual," 
p. 548. It is quite possible that this is identical with the aera of the 
Ionian revolt given above as having occurred in 499, 



146 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 512, Attica. — Institution of the ten tribes and prytanies. 
Grote, "Hist. Greece," IV, 219-20. The Athenians had previously 
consisted of four tribes. Herod. Terp. 66-9. 

B. C. 511, China. — Confucius, (Kung-fu-tsu) born B. C. 511. 
De Milloue, "Guide au Musee Guimet," Paris, 1894, p. 96. Rev. Ch. 
Hole fixes his birth in 551 and death in 479; but De Milloue's date 
is preferable. Confucius was the author of a moral code, which, 
though recognising the existence of a Supreme Creator, (Kang-ti) 
taught that true religion embraced not man's relation to the gods, 
but to his fellowmen. Praying, on the part of individuals, is dispensed 
with; this act of piety being relegated exclusively to the Emperor, 
who, upon the solstices and equinoxes, is required to pray for the 
entire nation. Veneration, not worship, is enjoined for ancestors, 
who should be regarded as though still living. This constitutes "la 
seule veritable religion des Chinois Confuceens." De Milloue. 

B. C. 510, Athens. — After the expulsion of the Pisistratidii2, Isa- 
goras, the son of Tisander, whose ancestry is alluded toby Herodotus 
in a mysterious manner, supposedly because it pretended to be derived 
from Bacchus, was worshipped (for a brief period) until he was de- 
posed by Clisthenes of Athens. Herod. Terp., 66-72. 

B. C. 510, Rome. — Aera of the Republic, the first consuls being 
Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Lenglet 
says B. C. 509. These consuls began their offices on August, ist, 
our Lammas. See B. C. 156. The Fasti Consulares, or Lists of 
the Consuls, from this date onward, are given by Livy, Gothofredi, 
Lenglet, Lempriere, Greswell, Babelon and Cohen; the two last being 
the most complete. 

B. C. 509, Cliorassan. — Aera of Moses, according to an ancient 
marble inscription erected by the Jews of Cai-fong-fou, the capital 
of Honan, 150 leagues from Pekin, China. The Jews in this place 
were a colony which came from Chorassan and Samarcand, about 
A. D. 73. The inscription relates that "Moses lived 613 yearsafter 
the beginning of Tcheou." This reign began B. C. 1122. iVccord- 
ing to this account Moses lived B. C. 509. This is two Divine years 
later than the period assigned to the Moses of the Bible. See Zal- 
mosis, B. C. 495. 

B. C. 495, Thracia. — Appearance of Gebel-Eisis, or Zalmosis, "a 
native deity among the Geta2 " of Thracia, who taught the immortality 
of the soul, gave laws to the Getje, (Diodorus, book I), disappeared in 
a subterranean abode for three years, was lamented as dead, and yet 
was resurrected and returned to life again. Festivals with human 



iERAS. 147 

sacrifices were offered to him every fifth year. Herod. Mel., 93-96. 
Herodotus rather diffidently expresses the opinion that Zalmosis, or 
Eisis, was earUer than Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, but if this 
was true he has mentioned Eisis out of his chronological order, for 
such mention occurs during his account of the Scythian expedition 
of Darius. The worship of Eisis in Thracia, Scythia and the Crimea, 
was continued to a much later date. He is probably the same with 
the Hesus of the Gauls, one of whose altars was recovered in 1726 
from beneath the Roman foundations of Notre Dame and is now in 
the Cluny Museum of Paris. Dupuis, I, 22. See Moses, B.C. 509. 

B. C. 495, Rome.— Aera of the Roman Habeas Corpus Act. On 
the ides of May (this is now Whitsuntide) A. U. 259, a temple to 
Liber Pater was erected near the Circus Maximus, probably to com- 
memorate the passage of an act which resembled the modern Habeas 
Corpus. Down to that time the Roman creditor had the right to 
seize and imprison the person of his debtor. In that year, owing to 
certain affecting circumstances related by Livy, the consul issued an 
edict that "no person should hold any Roman citizen in bonds or 
confinement, so as to hinder his being brought before the consuls; 
that no person should take possession nor make sale of the effects of 
a soldier while upon service, nor detain in custody either his children 
or grandchildren." Livy, II, 24. A similar edict was issued by 
Solon. See B. C. 325 and 592. 

B. C. 485, Spain and Gaul.— Aera of Hesus, son of God and of 
Maria, the Virgo Paritura. St. John Chrysostom, in a sermon which 
he is asserted to have preached on December 25, A. D. 386, said that 
the observance of this day as a religious festival had not been clearly 
known to "them" (his hearers) longer than ten years, "but that it 
had been familiar, from the beginning, to those ^who dwelt in the 
West." London "Chronicle," December 25, 1897. In this connec- 
tion, those who dwelt in the West could only have meant the Celts 
or Gauls, who worshipped Hesus, as mentioned in Ovid and Lucan. 
In France, on Christmas Day, so late as the reign of Louis XIV., 
the monks used to go about with a box, crying, " tir^-lire," and beg- 
ging for alms for "a Lady in labor." This was said to have been a 
custom derived from the Druids, who practiced it before the Chris- 
tian sera. Dr. Robinson (of Edinburgh), in his "Natural Philoso- 
phy," pp. 200-210, cited in Rev. Wm. D. D. Hales' "Chronology," 
p. 50. See B. C. 495 and 470. For authorities concerning Hesus, 
the son of Maria, consult Higgins' "Celtic Druids." 

B. C. 480, Bosporus. — Approximate sera of the kingdom of Bos- 



148 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

porus. Humphreys, p. 169. This date probably marks the emanci- 
pation of Bosporus from the suzerainty of Persia. At a later period 
Bosporus was added to Pontus. See B. C. 301. 

B. C. 479, Argos. — Aera of Chrysis, priestess of the Pelasgian 
Juno at Argos. This sera is used by Thucydides in his history of 
the Peloponnesian war, at the beginning of the first year of the war, 
which was the 48th of Chrysis. This answers to B. C. 431. 

B. C. 472, Rome. — Beginning of the Roman lustra, or five-year 
cycles. Haydn. Contrariwise, Censorinus, XVIII, attributes them 
to the reign of Servius Tullius, about a century earlier. Epoch: Au- 
gust ist (now called Lammas), at that time the New Year day in 
Rome. 

B. C. 470, India. — Brahminical sera of les Chrishna. 

B. C. 470, Gaul. — Conjectural date when the Druidical 30-year 
cycles began. They are mentioned by Pliny, N. H., XVI, 95. The 
Gauls (Gallaicans) are mentioned by Herodotus, VII, 108, as having 
"anciently" occupied Samothracian Greece, near the river LTssus. 
Their sea-port (now inland) was Issmarus. The next historical no- 
tice is in 390-85, when vast bodies of Gauls overran Italy and Greece, 
plundered the temple at Delphos and marched in a sort of crusade 
to their holy land of Maryandynia, where many of them remained. 
Simon Pelloutier, in his " Histoire des Celtes," V, 15, says that the 
Virgo Paritura was worshipped in the district of Chartres more than 
a century before the Christian aera. Cf. Dupuis, III, 51. A similar 
statement appears in Rigordius, cited by L'Escaloperius de Theolo- 
gia Veterum, Gallorum, cap. X, and in Andre Duchesne, Les An- 
tiquitez et Recherches des Villes, ed. 1609, pp. 292-6. Of a possi- 
bly still more ancient date is the Druid altar, on which is carved a 
representation and the name of their god, Hesus, cutting the sacred 
mistletoe. This stone was found in 1726 beneath the Roman founda- 
tions of Notre Dame de Paris and is now in the Cluny Museum. 
Hesus is alluded to in Ovid and Lucan. Rev. G. S. Faber, in his 
"Orig. Pagan Idol.," says that Hesus, Esa, Ma-Hesa and and Har- 
Esa are the same; and were known to the Latin writers as Mercury. 
Higgins, Anacal., I, 154. Arrian, ch. VIII, alludes to the same god 
as Herichrishna. The Druidical reverence for the samolus, or passion 
flower, is mentioned by Pliny, N. H., XXIV, 63. It must be gath- 
ered with the left hand, while fasting; the person who gathers it 
must not look behind him, etc. The samolus and passion flower are 
identified by Anguillara. Certain Druidical rites were forbidden by 
decree of the Roman Senate, B. C. 97, q. v. Diod. Sic, who flour- 



yERAS, 149 

ished B. C. 44, says (V, 2) that the Gauls wore gold crosses on their 
breasts. The 30-year cycles were employed in ancient Greece as a 
sseculum, or " age," by which to compute time. 

B. C. 463, Rome.— Consular year begun August ist. Livy, III, 
6, This New Year day, belonged, in fact, to a much earlier period. 

B. C. 453, Judea. — Ezra writes the Chronicles. Putnam. 

B. C. 452, Rome. — "In this year the Decemvirs changed the 
order of the months and placed February after January." Am. En- 
cyc. Brit., art. "Calendar." According to this authority, when 
" Numa " divided the year into 12 months, instead of ten, as it stood 
more anciently, he placed January at the beginning of the "year" 
and February at the end. If the same ' ' year " is meant in both cases 
this would place January between February and March ; and it would 
follow that the reform of the Decemvirs simply consisted of chang- 
ing the places of January and February — one for the other. But this 
is probably not what took place. "Numa" is more likely to have 
been the Decemvirs themselves, who placed February at the end of 
the Consular year, which began with Lammas, and January at the 
beginning of what has since become the Julian year; in other words, 
they placed one of the new months at the end of each of the two 
sets of five months in the ancient year of ten. January was, there- 
fore, between December and March, while February was between 
July and August. The essential point is the admission of the Brit- 
anica that the existing order of the months was established by the 
Decemvirs. John of Nikios hints that under Augustus, February 
was made to change places with August. See chap. II of the present 
work. ^. 

B.C. 432, Athens. — Metonic "euneakaidecseteric" lunar-solar cal- 
endar, commencing Hecatombion ist, July 15th, invented by Meton. 
Adopted by the state, B. C. 425, to supersede the Solonic calendar, 
which began on Gamelion ist. Although itself erroneous and al- 
though the measure of the error was calculated and offered to be 
remedied by Calippus, B. C. 330, the Metonic calendar was not su- 
perseded until it was absorbed in the Julian, B. C. 48. Meton retained 
Solon's three decads to the month and left unchanged the intercalary 
month at the end of Poseidon; but he changed the New Year day to 
first Hecatombion, whose position he also altered, making it equal 
to our 15th July. Greswell, Kal. Hell, I, 507. Parker says July 
16, B. C. 432. 

B. C. 415, India. — Ctesias, a Greek physician of Cnidus, resided, 
between 415 and 388, at the court of Dariu« II. of Persia. He wrote 



150 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

"Indica," the earliest western work on India, an "abridgment" of 
which by Photios still exists. Duff Rickmers. 

B. C. 395, Sparta. — Death of Lysander, a Spartan commander, 
who, after destroying the Athenian fleet in the Hellespont, sailed to 
Athens, obtained its surrender and thus ended the Peloponnesian 
war, B. C. 404. The glory of this achievement, coupled perhaps, 
with the reading of Ctesias' accounit of the Indian incarnations, 
turned his head. He set himself up for a god, and, as such, accepted 
worship from the terrified and servile inhabitants of Asia Minor. His 
pretensions were resented by the Spartans, who, charging him with 
embezzlement, consigned him to opprobrium, neglect and poverty. 
His attitude and history were curiously repeated two centuries later 
by Scipio Africanus. See Rome, B. C. 201. 

B. C. 389, Persia. — Aera of Zoroaster, according to Avicenna, 
who says Zoroaster was born 372, 660 days (/. e., about 1020)^ solar 
years) before the sera of lesdigerd, which makes Zoroaster's birth- 
day equal to March 3, B. C. 389. The Pandits "Chron." Seeante, 
B. C. 590, for another account. Zoroaster is assigned by Persian 
writers to the reign of Gustasp, whose name is mentioned in the 
Zendavesta. Zoroaster himself is mentioned by Plato, B. C. 427- 
347. In these dates no account is taken of the 78 years dropped 
from the calendar by Augustus, nor of the 15 years restored (proba- 
bly) after Justinian 11. In adopting Avicenna's opinion of Zor- 
oaster's aera, the Pandits, p. xxiii, refer to Troyer's translation of 
Dabistan; Sir W. Ouseley's " Travels in the East" (who cites Ag- 
athias); Shea's translation of Mirkhond ; Conder's "Persia and 
China;" Clement of Alexandria (who says that Pythagoras was the 
"forerunner" of Zoroaster) ; and Jamblichus' " Life of Pythagoras." 
See also works of Walter Moyle. 

B. C. 389, Phoenicia. — Persian sera, of Tripolis, comprising the 
cities of Aradia, Sidon and Tyre, on the coast of Phoenicia. This 
aera was found by Cardinal Henry Noris, on several coins of Ela- 
gabalus (years "531, 532 and 533 ") and by him mistaken for the aera 
of Seleucus. Diodorus Siculus says that in Olym. cvii, 2 (B. C. 351), 
Tripolis rebelled against and repelled the Persians. See A. D. 220 
for other dates of Elagabalus. 

B. C. 380, Europe, etc. — The Sun left the sign of Aries and en- 
tered Pisces in the 12-sign zodiac. It takes 2160 years to make the 
precession of each sign. Higgins, Anacal., I, 194. Hence the en- 
trance of the sun into the next sign occurred A. D. 1780, q. v. Else- 
where Higgins fixes the first-named event in B. C. 360, his year for 
Alexander's birth. Anacal., I, 777; II, 346. 



^RAS. 151 

B. C. 365, Gotland. — Aera of the Scandinavians, British and 
Icelanders. Epoch: December 25. Greswell, F. C, I, 575. This 
epoch is based on the assumption that the Gothic winter solstice fell 
on the Roman Brumalia or Christmas, whereas it really fell on Mar- 
tinmas. 

B. C. 351, Phoenicia. — Revolt of Tennes, king of Sidon, against 
the suzerainty of Persia. Picot, " Tablettes chronologiques, apres 
I'abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy," 1808. 

B, C. 350, India. — Panini, the Indian grammarian, from whose 
work numerous data have been gathered relating to chronology, is 
assigned to this date by Bohlingk; while Goldstiickerand Bhandarker 
place him earlier than the second Buddha. 

B. C. 332, Egypt. — Apotheosis of Alexander the Great, the con- 
queror of Egypt and afterwards of India, who, it was subsequently 
pretended, died aged 33 years. Scene, the Temple of Jupiter Ammon; 
time, the winter solstice; zodion, the Fishes. Quintus Curtius; 
Censorinus, D. N., ch. XXI. The same year was afterwards adopted 
for the " Coptic " sera. Ten years are sometimes wrongly subtracted 
from this sera by disregarding the difference between the Anno Mundi 
of Greece and Rome. (See B. C. 5502, 552 and 323), According 
to Mirkhond, Alexander frequently declared that his conquests were 
made for the glory of God and to propagate the true faith. Shea's 
trans., 396, 405. This was also the pretence of Csesar, Mahomet, 
Cortes, and others. Higgins, Anacal., II, 347, says that Alexander's 
conquests were facilitated by the popular belief that he was the Ex- 
pected One, Al-Ischa, the Saviour; hence also his name of Isskander, 
This belief could only have been founded on the eleventh incarna- 
tion of Brahma, or lesnu, due, by the Augustan chronology, B. C. 
470 and by the Indian chronology, B. C. 548. In such case Alexan- 
der was born two centuries too late. There is no other incarnation 
year which fits his chronology so nearly, unless it be the Lokkal of 
B. C. 377. The following are the dates of the principal events con- 
nected with the history of Alexander: 

B. C. CHRONOLOGY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

356. — Alexander born, 21st July, 

335. — Philip assassinated by Pausanias. 

335. — Alexander begins to reign over Macedonia. 

334. — Alexander destroys Thebes in Boeotia and advances against the 

Persian satraps in Asia. 
334. — Battle of the Granicus. Submission of Asia Minor. 
333. — Defeat of Darius and the Persian forces at Jassus. 



152 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

332. — Alexander destroys Tyre, July. Takes Egypt. Is deified on 

the winter solstice. Beginning of the Alexandrian ^ra. 
331. — Alexander takes Babylon. 
331. — Conquers Persia. Begins his Persian reign. 
327. — Departs from Nicaea, October 23. 
326. — Crosses the Indus and conquers Hither India. Arrives at Pat- 

tala (mouth of the Indus) in August. 
326. — Departure of the fleet from the Indus, October 2. 
324. — Erects altars to the twelve gods on the Hyphasis and returns. 
Townsend erroneously gives this year for the Aera of Alexan- 
der, 
323. — Alexander dies at Babylon, November 12. The Rabbins say 

B. C. 308, a difference of 15 years. 
322. — Is buried near Memphis in Egypt. 

298. — Serapion built, and Alexander's remains removed thither. For 
someof these dates see Vincent's notes to Strabo, III, 122, 141. 
B. C. 330, Punjab. — ^ra of Kandra Gupta, the sacred king of 
the Punjab and Magadha, the Sandrocottus of Magasthenes and of 
Justin, XV, 4. The Pandits fix his sra in B. C. 348. (See B. C. 
554). While Bunsen fixes his death in B. C. 256. (See B. C. 6658). 
Dunker, Lassen, and the numismatists fix the sera of Sandrocottus in 
B. C. 315, q. V. 

B. C. 327, India. — Year of the Invasion of India by Alexander 
the Great, according to Albiruni, who evidently regards this as his 
(zra, par excellence. This year is also adopted by the Abbe Lenglet 
de Fresnoy, Dr. Greswell, Haydn, Townsend and other chronolo- 
gists. Diodorus also regards the invasion of India as the «ra of 
Alexander; for he says, book I, that the Egyptians count 23,000 
years from the reign of the Sun to Alexander's "passage into Asia "; 
although he does not give its date. Some chronologists date the in- 
vasion of India in B. C. 326. 

B. C. 325, Rome. — ^ra of the Paetelian law, A. U. 429, by 
which it was made a misdemeanor to detain any person in custody or 
confinement, unless as a punishment for crime and after lawful con- 
viction. Livy, VIII, 28. This was substantially a re-enactment of 
the Habeas Corpus act of A. U. 259, or B. C. 495. It constitutes 
one of the greatest monuments of human liberty and progress. See 
B. C. 495 and 132. 

B. C. 323, Macedonia.— ^ra Philippica (Philip III). Epoch, 

November 12. (Martinmas.) Clinton, F. R., II, 217, says B. C. 324. 

B. C. 323, Egypt. — False Alexandrian sera, dated from the death 



I 

of Alexander, which occurred at Babylon, November 12, B. C. 323, 
his reputed age being 3$ years. " In A. D. 285, ten years were dis- 
carded from this «ra." Hadyn, voc. ''Alex." and ''Mundane," and 
Abulf eda, in Gibbon, V, 193, n. This is all wrong. The common Alex- 
andrian sera was not dated from the death, but from either the apoth- 
eosis of that prince or else from his invasion of India. The ten years 
were not discarded in A.D. 285, but in the reign of Justinian II., or 
else at a still later period. " Middle Ages Revisited," ch. VIII. The 
sera of B. C. 323 is that of Philip III., Alexander's successor. Cen- 
sorinus, XXI. See B. C, 323 (324). 

B. C. 322, Egypt.— "Incarnation" of Ptolemy Soter. The 
Ptolemaic sera began on Thoth ist or August 29th. 

B. C. 322, Egypt. — Phenix, or Phoenix period began; the 215th 
year (some MSS. say the 225th) year, of which, fell in the consulate 
of P. Licinius and Cneius Cornelius, A. U. 657. Pliny, N. H., X, 2. 
Hardouin says that the Phenix was a period or cycle of 532 years. 
If so, it was the same as the Paschal cycle of Dionysius, q. v. 

B. C. 315, India.— Accession of Kandra Gupta, according to 
Duncker's "India," p. 74; and Lassen. His "divine mission" is 
mentioned by Justin. See B. C. 330. His reign lasted 24 pears. 

B. C. 312, Antioch. — "Incarnation" of Seleucus Nicanor, or 
Epiphanes, Son of Apollo, and conqueror of India. Autumnal equi- 
nox. Some chronologists place this sera (the Seleucidan) in B. C. 311 
and the epoch on September ist. The Arabs say October ist. The 
Pandits' "Chron.," p. xxxi. Stokvis says October 4, B. C. 312. 
The miraculous conception and birth of Seleucus and his treaty with 
Sandracottus, or Chandra Gupta, are related in Justin, XV, 4. The 
Seleucidan sera is believed to have been employed in the Syriac ver- 
sion of the New Testament, mentioned in Marsh's Michaelis, II, 31. 
At the end of the book was written : " This sacred book was finished 
on Wednesday the eighteenth day of the first month, Conun, in the 
year 389, by the hand of the apostle Achseus, a fellow labourer of 
Mar Maris." Michaelis supposed this date to agree with A. D. 78 
and the month with December. Conun was not the first month of 
the Seleucidan, but of the Alexandrian calendar. This colophon is 
probably a modern forgery. 

B. C. 311, Edessa. — ^ra used by Hieronymous, probably de- 
rived from or identical with the Seleucidan. Clinton, F. R., I 317. 
Greswell, F. C, III, 238, calls it the " ^ra Grsecorum." Appleton 
says it was used by the Jews of the Middle Ages. 

B. C. 307, Athens. — Deification and worship of the living Dem- 



154 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

etrius Poliorcetes, whose aera dates from this year, the epoch being 
the vernal equinox in the month of Munychion. 

Demetrius Poliorcetes, born B. C. 337, died B. C. 283, was king of 
Macedon, 294-287. He was the son of Antigonus, who, in the first 
division of Alexander's empire, received for his share several prov- 
inces of Asia Minor. After taking part in his father's wars in Syria 
against Eumenes and Ptolemy, Demetrius sailed to Greece, and in 
307 took Athens without resistance. Anarchy, civil wars, and fear, 
had now brought the Greeks so low, that they hastened to greet and 
worship both the absent Antigonus and the present Demetrius, as 
o-ods and "god-protectors." Temples were erected or altered to 
their honour, priests were appointed to conduct a worship which was 
profanely addressed to these divinities, an altar was erected upon 
the spot where Demetrius first landed, and it was consecrated to 
Demetrius Cantabates; his portrait was wrought in the peplum or 
holy veil; and the Greeks changed the number of their tribes from 
ten to twelve, calling the new ones Antigonis and Demetrias; thus 
increasing the senate from five hundred to six hundred members. 
But adulation did not stop even here. Led by Stratocles, Dromoclides, 
and other sycophants, the senate decreed that the messengers who 
should be sent on public business to either Antigonus or Demetrius 
should be called theori, a sacred title, hitherto reserved for the holy 
officers who on solemn festivals carried the sacrifices to Delphi and 
Olympia; that the same worship should be paid to Demetrius as to 
Ceres (Maia) and the infant Bacchus ; that the festival of Bacchus, 
previously called Dion-Issus, should be called Demetrius; that the 
month of his apotheosis, Munychion, should be called Demetrion ; 
that the last day of every month should be called Demetrias; that 
sacrifices should be made to Demetrius as to a god; that Demetrius, 
as the o-od-protector, should be consulted as an holy oracle and be- 
sought to reveal to mankind the most pious and acceptable method 
or ritual of consecrating an intended offering of shields to Delphi; 
that the temple of the Parthenon, sacred to the virgin-goddess Mi- 
nerva should be consecrated as a palace for the sacred Demetrius; 
that his word and act were Infallible and should be accounted holy 
in respect of the gods and just in respect of men ; that he be in- 
vited both to the lesser mysteries and the greater; that the ofitice 
of archon and the custom of giving the archon's name to the year, 
be abolished; and that a new sera should begin, with the advent of 
the new god Demetrius. Demetrius wore "a double diadem, a robe 
of purple interwoven with gold, and shoes of gold cloth, with soles 



iERAS. 155 

of fine purple. There was a robe a long time in weaving for him, 
of most sumptuous munificence. The figure of the world and of all 
the heavenly bodies were being displayed upon it, but it was left 
unfinished." He became diflicult of access and either declined to 
grant an interview to those accredited to him, or else treated them 
in a distant and haughty manner. Though he favoured the Athenians 
more than the other Greeks, their ambassadors waited at his court 
(of Pella) two years for an answer. For an ampler account of this 
scandalous worship, see "Middle Ages Revisited," II, 8. 

B. C. 307, Athens. — In this year, according to Greswell, the 
Prytanes were increased from 10 to 12, the two new tribes being 
named after Demetrius and his father Antigonus. Greswell, K. H., 
I, 84, n, citing Diodorus, Plutarch, Pausanias, etc. 

B. C. 307, Rome. — The years A. U. 446 and 447, answering in 
Baker's edition to B. C. 306 and 305, appear to have been inserted 
into the Roman annals by Livy. There was no account of them in 
Piso, as he himself states (IX, 44) and it' is quite possible that the 
annals of the years inserted were taken from other years, so as to 
make the reckoning of time agree with the calendar alterations of 
Augustus, to whom Livy personally submitted his History of Rome, 
before committing it to the public. According to Lenglet, the years 
inserted were A. U. 447 and 448, corresponding with B. C. 307 and 
306, in the earlier one of which the consuls were Ap. Claudius Csecus 
and L. Vulumnius Flamma, and in the later, Q. Marcius Tremulus 
and P. Cornelius Arvina; the dictator being L. Papirius Cursor, I. 
The two years of discrepancy may be identical with the two years 
mentioned in chapter II herein. 

B. C. 305, Rome. — A. U. 449. Upon the m.otion of Caius or 
Cneius Flavius, curule «dile, the Roman calendar (hitherto announced 
verbally) was now first required to be posted up in writing, probably 
to prevent further jugglery. This was " 203 years after the conse- 
cration of the Capitol." Livy, IX, 46; Pliny, XXXIII, 6. In this 
year, or in the previous one, B. C. 306, the first sun dial was erected 
in Rome by Papirius Cursor. Both of these events imply a return 
to the use of a solar calendar. 

B. C. 301, Ponttis. — Reputed sera of the kingdom of Pontus, it 
having been previously a satrapy of Persia. (See Bosporus, B. C. 480.) 
Perisades, who reigned B. C. 289, struck gold coins with the legend 
" Perisades Basileus. " The coins of this kingdom commonly bore 
Dionysian emblems; and for this reason were held in great venera- 
tion by the pious Greeks and Romans. The kingdom of Pontus was 



156 A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

alone permitted by the Romans to strike gold coins. M. A. R. 

B. C. 300, Antioch. — Artemisius 22nd. Date of the Foundation 
of Antioch and Seleucias by Seleucus, according to Greswell, Kal. 
Hell., Ill, 437. 

B, C. 298, Bosporus. — Reputed sera of the kingdom of Cimme- 
rian Bosporus. This kingdom having become united to Pontus, the 
sera, which differs from the Pontine by only three years, is probably 
of the same origin. Both of these aeras are deduced from extant 
coins (Humphreys, Coin Manual, 164-8); but this deduction should 
be accepted with caution. Stokvis and Koehne fix the asras of both 
kingdoms in A. U. 457, or B. C. 297. 

B. C. 297, Pontus. — Approximate date when the image of Dion- 
ysius, Mercury, Hermes, Osiris, or Serapis, was carried in state from 
Sinope, in Pontus, to Rhacotis, the ancient name of Alexandria, in 
Egypt. Ptolemy I., surnamed the Saviour, dreamt that a godlike 
Youth appeared before him and entreated that His image and shrine 
might be brought from the temple of Sinope, in Pontus, promising 
that if this were done Egypt's power and the City's prosperity would 
be assured. Having spoken thus, the bright Vision ascended to 
heaven in a column of fire. Upon consulting Timotheus of Athens, 
a Dionysian pri'est and a lineal descendant of the Eumolpides, (High- 
Buddha-priests; Pococke,) the king sent an embassy to consult the 
oracle at Delos. They received this reply: "Continue your voy- 
age: carry off the image of my Father; but let that of my Sister re- 
main." The ambassadors next sailed to Sinope, from whence, after 
three years' persistent entreaty, backed by rich presents, King Scy- 
drothemis gave them permission to remove the sacred image to 
Egypt. However, the image itself somewhat anticipated these tedi- 
ous negotiations by walking aboard the ambassadors' ship, which 
soon afterwards sped to Alexandria, where the god was received 
with great rejoicings and enshrined in a gorgeous temple, (Serapion,) 
especially built for his accommodation and that of Isis. Tacitus, 
Hist., IV, 83-4. The relation of this prodigy by so respectable an 
authority as Tacitus, corroborated, as he is, in the main by Plutarch 
and Clement Alexandrinus, affords no slight proof of the partiality 
of the Romans, for whom this account was written, for the cult of 
Dionysius; and that, too, at a period (that of Tacitus) when the 
worship of Augustus had been established by law for more than a 
century. The locality assigned to the miracle is corroborated by 
the coins and other monuments of Pontus, which assure us that, 
from the earliest to the latest period of its autonomy, its religion was 



^RAS. , 157 

Dionysian. As to the identity of Dionysius, Osiris and Serapis, see 
M, Gaignant's Dissertation at the end of the fifth volume of Bur- 
nouf's Tacitus; also Plutarch, De Isis et Osiris. Jerome fixes the 
removal of the shrine of Serapis in B. C. 286 and Eusebius in B. C. 
27g; a difference from the date above assumed of 11 to 19 years. 
Greswell says B. C. 281. Dionysios, Mercury, Hermes, or Serapis, 
who was foretold by the angelic vision which appeared to Ptolemy, 
had for his celestial father, Jove, the Supreme; his virgin mother 
was Maia (in Egypt, Isis); the Messianic star indicated his birth- 
place, which, in the case of Hermes was on the Kyllemian Hill; he 
was born on the winter solstice and was recognized by the " bishops 
of Chrestos. " His head was rayed; his complexion florid; and his 
hair, auburn. He performed numerous miracles, fasted 40 days, was 
tempted by the Devil and, in the case of Hermes, embodied his doc- 
trines of salvation in a book that went by his own name. His apos- 
tles were 12; he was persecuted for his religion and condemned to 
death by crucifixion. He was executed on the vernal equinox; rose 
again and ascended bodily to heaven; yet the serapion at Alexandria 
was exhibited as his sepulchre and at the base of it was deposited a 
cross. His principal sacrament was baptism and his epigraphic sym- 
bols were the t, ? and : the last one being the well-known symbol 
of Mercury, still used as a trade sign by chemists and apothecaries, 

B. C. 293, Rome. — In the dictatorship of L. Papirius Cursor II., 
(B. C. 293,) the "year of 12 months was introduced instead of the 
old Roman year of ten; and the first sun dial was set up." Mrs. Al- 
fred Gatty, per H. K. F. Gatty, in Archeol. Jour., January, 1889, p. 
188. No authority for this statement concerning the calendar ap- 
pears in Livy's Annals of this year. See chap. II herein. 

B. C. 288, Bithynia. — Erroneous sera of Bithynia, deduced by 
Humphreys, 102, from the coins of Nicomedes II., (Epiphanes,) 
B. C. 149-93, Nicomedes III., (Philopater,) B. C. 93-75 and Nico- 
medes IV., B. C. 75-65, which are respectively stamped 160, 205 and 
223 years, evidently of the Seleucidan aera of B. C. 312. To hide the 
14 or 15 years' alteration in the christian sera which these dates dis- 
close, an imaginary sera has been imputed to Zissetes or Zipoetes, a 
Persian satrap, the father of the first king of Bithynia. 

B. C. 283, Pontus. — ^ras of Apamea, Bithynium, Nicsa, Nico- 
media and Prusa ad Olympam, found on coins of those cities. Rei- 
nach. Rev. Num., 1887; W. Wroth, "Cat. of Greek Coins," 1889, 
ed. Poole. 

B. C. 282, Antioch. — Regnal »ra of Antiochusl., the "Saviour," 



158 A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

king of Syria, son of Seleucus Nicanor and father of Antiochus 
Theos, or "The Living God." 

B. C. 263, India. — ^ra of the accession of Asoka, son of Bin- 
dusara, son of Chandra Gupta, which is variously dated B. C. 266, 
264, 263, 232, 231 and 226, all of these dates being in the vulgar 
sera. If 6^ years, the difference between the vulgar and the pre- 
Augustan aera of Rome, are added, these dates become B. C. 329, 
327, 326, 295, 294 and 289. None of these dates synchronise with 
the Divine years either of Brahma or Brahma-Buddha. B. C. 263 is 
from Duncker, p. 525, who calls it that of the Eleventh incarnation 
of lesnu, Ishnu, Vishnu, or the Matsya. (Zodion of the Fishes.) 
B. C. 232 and 231 are from the Puranas, which date the accession 
(reign) of Asoka, 311 or 312 years from the nirvana of Buddha; yet 
Gen. Cunningham dates the nirvana 214 years before Asoka. B. C. 
226 is assigned for the death of Asoka. As the tera of Asoka is em- 
ployed for the starting point of many Indian dates, it is to be re- 
gretted that it cannot be fixed with more precision. The date above 
selected, B. C. 263, seems the most likely, for it is asserted in the 
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, LII, 36, that the third Budd- 
hic ecleastical council was held in Southern India, B. C. 246; and 
this, if correct, was almost certainly during the reign of Asoka. 
Nevertheless, the subject is not without difficulty. See B. C. 255. 
Senart fixes the accession of Asoka in B. C. 273. 

B. C. 263, Athens. — Assumed year af Diognetus, the archon in- 
scribed in the Parian marbles and the year from which all the dates 
are calculated by Abbe Lenglet de Fresnoy. Both Rev. J. Robert- 
son and M. Gibert have proved that the important date in Marble 
XLV has been altered and the archon's name defaced. Rev. Wm. 
Hales says that some of the marbles were used to repair a chimney 
in Arundel House. Rev. J- Robertson says the dates are all false, 
Selden detected that the marbles embrace two methods of computa- 
tion, with a difference of 25 years between them; this difference run- 
ning along without variation from Cecrops to the Fall of Troy; after 
which they agree. If this difference were followed down, it would fix 
Diognetus in B. C. 238. 

B.C. 255, Egypt and Syria. — "Christ, as Ichthys, the Fish, 
dates from B. C. 255." Gerald Massey, in " The Natural Genesis," 
I, 455. Mr. Massey means by this that the Messianic symbol, which, 
from the sixth century B. C, down to this year, was the Lamb, was 
superceded by the Fishes, or Pisces. The year B. C. 255 (or B. C 
254) is that of the Apotheosis of Alexander, namely, B. C. 332, al- 



MRAS. 159 

tered 78 years by the Augustan chronologists. The zodion assigned 
to this ''incarnation "was the Fishes. See the zodion of Asoka, un- 
der B. C. 263. See also B. C. 24. 

B. C. 254, Cyprus.— ^ra of Citium, deduced by the authorities 
of the British Museum from a stone monument now in their " Re- 
ligious " collection. They say that the 57th year of this sera corre- 
sponds with the 31st regnal year of Ptolemy Philadelphus. This 
reign began B. C. 284: hence the sera of Citium would be B. C. 310. 
On another stone monument in the same collection the 5 2nd year of 
Citium is said to correspond with the 25th year of Ptolemy Soter, 
whose reign began B. C. 322. Hence the sera of Citium was B. C. 
349. There is evidently some confusion here. 

B. C. 250, Parthia. — "Incarnation" of Arsaces I., King of 
Kings. 

B. C. 247, Parthia. — ^ra of Arsaces I., deduced by Geo. Smith 
from a cuneiform tablet dated "year 108 of Arsaces." Cunningham. 
Thomas, " Jainism," p. 14, says, B. C. 248. 

B. C. 238. Athens. — Possible year of Diognetus. See B. C. 263. 

B. C. 235, Rome. — Six years after the end of the first Punic War 
the Temple of Janus was closed, and it remained closed for 17 years. 
Adams, 553. 

B. C. 206, Syria. — Antiochus III. invades India and concludes a 
treaty with Sophogasenos. 

B. C. 205, Rome. — ^ra of the Matrem Deorum in Rome. Her 
statue, or symbol, supposed to have been a mass of meteoric iron, 
like that of Mania, in the Caaba, was brought this year (B. C. 205-4) 
from Piscenus, in Mariandynia (Galatia) by order of the Senate. 
The ceremonies were both solemn and magnificent. Livy. "Be- 
tween the Mater Idsea Piscenuntia, or Phrygia, whose proper name 
was Cybele, and her co-mate Attes, Attis, or Attia and Isis, there 
was absolutely no difference except in name. It must have been the 
height of inconsistency to recognize or to tolerate the former and 
yet not to recognize, or to refuse to tolerate, the latter." Rev. Edw. 
Greswell, Fasti Catholici, II, 443, n. The same may be said of 
Maryamma (see B. C. 1332 and 533) and of Mania, Mother of the 
Lares, or household gods, whose festival, the Compitalia, is con- 
nected with so early a period as the reign of Servius Tullius. Bell's 
Panth. ; Noel, Die. Fable. Hislop, "Two Babylons," 206, makes 
the same remark of Cardea, the mother or wife of Janus, mentioned 
in Ovid, Fasti, VI, loi. For the cognate fables of Nana and Diana, 
see B. C. 645. About this time, B. C. 191, plus 15 3'ears, the Lex 



l6o A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Acilia resigned the intercalation of the calendar to the pontiffs. 
Smith's Die. Rom. Ant. See B. C. 191 herein, 

B. C. 205, Numidia. — ^ra of Massin-Issa, King of Massylia, in 
Numidia, this being the year in which, after defeating Scylax, he re- 
covered his kingdom. Livy. 

B. C. 204, Egypt, — ^ra of Ptolemy IV., Philopater, B. C. 221-04, 
who, after putting to death his mother, Berenice, and taking to 
wife his sister Arsinoe, (whom he subsequently murdered,) pretended 
to be the Son of God and demanded to be worshipped as such. His 
pedigree began with Bacchus and Althea (daughter of Thestius), and 
was carried through their daughter, Dejanira, and the line of the 
Heraclidse down to Arsinoe, the wife of Lagus, the father of Ptolemy 
I., Soter. From the latter to himself (Philopater) the descent was 
matter of notoriety. Upon his return from Syria to Alexandria, after 
defeating Antiochus III., at Rhaphia, B. C. 217, Philopater caused 
all the Jews in Egypt to be assembled in Alexandria and branded 
with the Chrissophyllo, or symbol of Bacchus (the cross), a mark that 
he himself wore. Satyrus, in Theophilus ad Autolycum, ii, 7, 8; 
III Maccabees, ii, 29. 

B. C. 201, Rome — ^ra of ScipioAfricanus, who attempted about 
this time, (the 5th Ludi Sjeculares fell in A. U. 550), to get himself 
recognised by the Romans as the Son of God. Aulus Gellius; Cen- 
sorinus; Herbert. 

B. C. 200, Rome. — Cicero de Legg., lib. ii, says that the ancient 
year of ten months was changed to 12 months, during the consulate 
of Dec. Brutus, or A. U. 616. If we accept the Varronian date of 
the Foundation of Rome, this corresponds with B, C. 138. If we 
adopt the Timsean and Ciceronian computation, it corresponds with 
B, C. 200. Cf. R. T. Pothier, Pandectse Justinianese, Parisis, 1818, 
I, clxvi. See above, B. C. 452. 

B. C, 199, Epirus. — ^ra of Titus Quintius Flamininus, a Roman 
general, who. while in Epirus and in the year of Rome 555 (the fifth 
Ludi Sseculares fell in A. U. 550) impiously assumed the title and 
authority of God on Earth. Plutarch. 

B. C. 191, Rome. — Lex Acilia. Intercalation of the calendar 
resigned to the pontiffs. See B. C. 205. 

B. C. 190, India. — Millenium of Parasurama, /. ^., when the 
Christian 15 5^ears alteration are added to the Augustan chronology. 

B, C, 190, Khazaria. — ^ra of the Khazares, according to the 
Encyc. Brit. 

B. C. 175, India., — Millenium ot Parasurama. See B. C. 11 75 
and 190. 



^RAS. l6l 

B. C. 165, Baclria. — The Hiang-nu drive the Yueh-ti westward 
into Sogdiana ; while the latter drive the Sacae into Bactria. Specht, 
according to Duff Rickmers, p. 15. 

B. C. 156, Rome. — Date of the latest change in the Epoch of the 
Roman consular year. The consular day at the outset of the Re- 
public, A. U. 244, B. C. 510, was in all probability the calends of 
Sextilis, afterwards known as August ist, now called Lammas. Be- 
cause Tarquin was expelled on Regifugium (the King's Flight) Feb- 
ruary 23rd or 24th, Dr. Adams believes that the first consuls (A. U. 
244 orB. C. 510) were elected and went into office on this day. But 
aside from the doubtfulness or there having been any February in 
the Roman calendar at the outset of the Republic, it does not follow 
from Livy that the new consuls entered office on the very same day 
that Tarquin was expelled. It would be more reasonable to suppose 
that they began their term a few months later, say on the Middle Day 
of the ecclesiastical year. Livy says of the year of Rome 291 or 
B. C. 463 (corrected by the Abbe Lenglet to 289 or B. C. 465) that 
''the elections were then held, and Lucius ^Ebutius and Publius 
Servilius being chosen consuls, they began their office on the calends 
of August, which was at that time considered the beginning of the 
Civil year." This is the most exact definition of the Roman new 
year in any ancient author. There is reason to believe that the cus- 
tom of beginning the civil year with the day now called the first of 
August went back to the foundation of the Republic. As the first 
of March (the epoch of the ecclesiastical year) was called Messo, 
(from Mesotheus, a surname of Bacchus, Janus, or Mercury), so the 
first of August was anciently called Messa, a surname of Ceres. The 
Goths called the first one the Mess or Mass-day par excellence and 
the second one (by way of distinction) the Latter Mass, corrupted 
to Lammas (Dr. Johnson). Several metonyms of these terms will 
be found in chapter II, herein. Although we are informed that so 
late as A. U. 291 or B. C. 463 the consular day was still Messa, or 
Lammas, yet in A. U. 299 or B. C. 455 it was changed to the day 
now known as Whitsuntide. Livy, III, ^6. In A. U. 331 or B. C. 
423 it was changed to the ides, the middle or mass-day, of December. 
Dio. Hal, XI, 15; Livy, IV, 37; V, 11. In A. U. 363 or B. C. 391 
it was changed to July ist. Livy, V, 32; VIII, 20. In A. U. 530 
or B. C. 224 it was changed to the calends of March. Furgault 
"Recueil Hist. d'Ant. ," mot "Calendrie. " Finally, in A. U. 598 or 
B. C. 156, it was changed to January ist. Ovid. Fasti, I, 81 • III 
147; Livy, Ep. 47; Adams, Roman. Antiq. 



[62 



A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 



B. C. 146, Achaia. — Macedo-Achsen aera. Stokvis. In this year 
Achaia became a Roman province. 

B. C. 143, Jtidea. — Maccabean or Asmonean sera November 24. 
Townsend says B. C. 166. The Abb^ Lenglet says ''Kislev 25, our 
November 24, B. C. 165, when Judas Maccabseus purified the temple 
and re-estabHshed divine worship." Humphreys says the earliest 
Hebrew shekels, those of Simon Maccabseus, were stamped "Year I " 
and issued about B. C. 144. Lenglet commences the pontificate of 
Simon in B. C. 143, which is the year herein adopted for this sera. 

B. C. 125, Sidon and Tyre—" Incarnation " of Antiochus VIII., 
(Gryphus), the conqueror of Sidon and Tyre. It commenced with 
the first day of Hyperberetacus, or 19th October. Hieronymous, in 
Clinton, F. R., I, 317, Humphreys, p. 548, says, B. C. 126. See 
B. C. no. 

B. C. 122, Rome. — -^ra of the Sempronian law, A. U. 632, which 
provided that no sentence should be passed upon a Roman citizen 
unless by virtue of law or warrant of the Comitia. Cicero, pro Rabir. , 
4. See B. C. 495 and 325. 

B. C. 110, Sidon and Tyre. — Variant date of the "incarnation" 
of Antiochus Gryphus, according to Stokvis. (See above, B. C. 
125.) The difference which now appears between this and the pre- 
vious date is probably due to the fact that the change of 15 years in 
the calendar was effected during the interval when the translation 
of each date severally was made into the Christian £era. 

B. C. 103, Ascalon. — Aera mendoned by Hieronymous, in Clin- 
ton, F. R., I, 317. 

B. C. 100, Rome. — Birth of Caius Julius Csesar, a descendant of 
Venus (the mother of gods, who was called Julius Csesar Dionseus, 
or Dionseus Mater). He was a ten months' child; born miracu- 
lously (from the side); he laughed at the moment of his birth; and 
over his cradle a star appeared to announce his advent to the world. 
At the age of 17, in B. C. 83 he became a priest of Jupiter. His first 
public service was in Bithynia and Cilicia, where he doubtless im- 
bibed that Oriental theogony which he afterwards so effectually em- 
ployed as a political instrument. In B. C. 73 he became a cardinal, 
or member of the Sacred College; B. C. 64, Pontifex Maximus; B. C. 
60, Consul for five years, afterwards extended to ten years; B. C. 48, 
battle of Pharsalia, conquest of Egypt, acquisition of the Oriental 
trade, command of the world; B. C. 48, deified in Egypt in the tem- 
ple of Jupiter Amnion; B. C. 47, reform of the calendar; B. C. 46, 
deified by the Senate of Rome March 25 (10), monument found at 



/ERAS. 163 

Evora, in Portugal, inscribed " Divo Julio, "or the living god Julius; 
a fastigium, or steeple, a mark of ecclesiastical sanctity, was placed 
upon his house; a coin was struck with his efi&gy holding a sword in 
one hand and a book in the other, with an inscription importing that 
he governed both spiritually and temporally (Du Prez) ; his face was 
concealed by a peplum or veil ; and the custom of kissing his foot 
was introduced at court. These practices were suddenly arrested by 
his assassination, which occurred March 15, 44, the day afterwards 
called " parricidium." Upon his death the earth was convulsed; six 
hours of darkness supervened ; and a comet arose in the afternoon 
which appeared for a week together and was believed to be Csesar^s 
spirit in heaven. (Suetonius.) 

B. C. 98, Arabia. — Death and sera of Kab ben Luayy, according 
to Albiruni, Sachau's trans., 1879, p. 39. It has been suggested 
that Kab ben Luayy is possibly a corrupted Roman name. 

B. C. 97, Rome. — A. U. 657, Cneius Cornelius Lentulus and P. 
Licinius Crassus, consuls. A decree of the Senate was passed for- 
bidding human sacrifices. This appears to have been aimed at the 
worship and rites of Hesus, both in Scythia, Persia, Antioch, Gaul 
and Britain. A similar decree appears to have been issued by Tibe- 
rius. Pliny, N. H., XXX, 3; Tacitus, Annals, II, 69. The Brah- 
mins of India very anciently had a similar interdict; also the Egyp- 
tians; (Herod., Eut., 45;) also the Jews. 

B. C. 90, Gotland. — ^ra of Woden, or Odin, the Buddhic god 
of the Scythians and Norsemen. This sera began on the first Thor, 
which coincided with the winter solstice. The Norse Woden is prob- 
ably identical with the Mongolian-Chinese Woote. (See B. C. 86.) 
This sera of Woden is one Divine Year after Nebo-Nazaru, B. C. 748, 
and two Divine Years after Jasius and the Ten Dactyles, B. C. 1406; 
there being an interval of exactly 658 years between each of these 
three dates. Allowing for the 12 years inserted in the calendar by 
the Chaldeans (See chapter III) the sera of Woden was exactly three 
Divine Years after les Chrishna, Bel Issus, Cres, etc., with all of 
which incarnations it was evidently connected. There can be but 
little doubt that these cycles and the myths concerning them were 
carried from India into Asia Minor and Europe, by the Scythians 
and Goths. The great festivals of the Norsemen during the earlier 
centuries of our sera appear to have fallen on what are now known 
as the Cross-Quarter Days, which, in fact, are relics of the ancient 
ten months' year. According to Brady, II, 353, the Yule festival of 
the Norsemen commenced on Hokunott, or Holy Night, which 



164 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

agreed with the beginning of the month Thor. Du Chaillu says that 
Yule fell in the " middle " of our month of January. This may mean 
the i8th, or the ides (the ides in the 36-day month) of January, which 
is still the Christmas and New Years' day of the Armenians, namely, 
1 8th January. If correct, this belongs to a different period from that 
alluded to by Brady. According to the Landnama, V, 15, Yule was 
changed to our 25th December during the reign of Hakon, king of 
Norway and foster-son of Athelstan, king of England, who had con- 
verted Hakon to Christianity, about A. D. 940, but we are not in- 
formed on or about what day it was previously kept. As Yule (now 
our Christmas) falls at midwinter, the changes alluded to, did not 
necessarily alter the solar period of the festival, but merely the 
nominal date of it ; in other words, what took place (dates uncer- 
tain) was one or more alterations of the calendar. The fact that the 
English kings down to the reign of Henry 11. traced their royal 
pedigree down from Woden, by just as many generations as would 
suffice to fix the ^ra of this heaven-born personage in A. U. 664, or 
B. C. 90, affords reason to suspect that the history and sera of Christ 
was not known in England until a later period than that assigned by 
the Romanised Landnama to the proselyting efforts of Athelstan. 

B. C. 90, Rome. — ^ra of Minius leus, who led the insurgents in 
the Social War of A. U. 664; he adopted a sacred name (leus); and 
struck gold coins stamped "Italia," some of which are still extant. 
Del Mar's "Hist. Monetary Systems." 

B. C. 88, Rome. — "In the year of Rome 666, the haruspices an- 
nounced that the earthly day of Etruria was drawing to a close." 
This prediction was probably based upon .the knowledge that the cy- 
cle of Eclipses, or Indian cycle of the Incarnation, or Divine Year, 
would soon recur. Higgins' Anacal., I, 181. See B. C. 78. 

B. C. 86, China. — Death and posthumous deification of Woote, 
possibly named after Buddha, Wooten, or Woden, as he was called 
by the Baltic Goths. The Chinese Woote, by avoiding war, earnt 
the sobriquet of the " Prince of Peace." He ordered that upon the 
death of a noble, his estate should be equally divided amongst his 
lawful children, thus abolishing prmiogeniture. He restored the 
Buddhic literature, which had been destroyed a century previously 
by Chi-hoang-ti. Woote ordered the doctrines of Confucius and 
Mencius to be publicly taught. He drove the Tartars beyond the 
Great Wall, conquered Pegu, Siam, Cambaia and Bengal, appointed 
kings over these states, and thus himself became a king of kings. 
Felted paper was invented in the reign of Woote's grandfather; pa- 



.ERAS. 165 

per money was first used In Woote's reign; while printing became 
common in that of his grandson. 

B. C. 84, Athens. — ^ra of L. Cornelius Sylla, who was deified 
this year in Athens and hailed as Epaphroditus, the son of Venus, 
mother of gods. The date is derived from inscriptions; (Rev. J. B. 
Lightfoot, "The Apostolic Fathers," I, 494;) the Apotheosis ap- 
pears in Plutarch. Two years later, Sylla was created Perpetual 
Dictator in Rome, the first instance of the kind, says Plutarch, in 
120 years. As the last instance was that of Q. Fabius Maximus, 
B. C. 537 (Lenglet), the present difference is 135, not 120 years; in- 
dicating an alteration in the Christian calendar of 15 years. In B. C. 
89 Sylla married the daughter of Metellus, the Pontifex Maximus. 
About B. C. 84 he was initiated into the mysteries of Ceres, at Ath- 
ens. Plutarch. The Syllan sera, A. U. 670, which, according to the 
Christian calendar, is B. C. 84, was adopted by numerous urban com- 
munities in the eastern provinces, for the reason that being brought, 
after the close of the Mithradatic War, under direct Roman admin- 
istration, they then first received city rights. Mommsen, Hist. Rome, 
1886, I, 327. 

B. C. 82, Pontus. — ^ra of the union of Pontus and Bosporus, 
B. C. 82. 

B. C. 78, India. — Augustan date of the Nativity of les Chrishna, 
or Salivahana, which some translate as Son-of-a-Virgin, and others as 
Cross-borne. The sera is also assigned to Vicramaditya, the Holy 
Vicar of God : a Buddhic re-incarnation, according to native astrolo- 
gers. Greek sign of the Fishes. This was the nth incarnation, or 
avatar; it was also the period when, according to the Hindu theory, 
the world was to come to an end; an event that was confidently 
looked for by the pious, in every portion of the earth into which the 
astrology of the orient had penetrated. The real date of Salivahana 
or Vicramaditya — for according to Col. Wilford, they are practically 
the same — was that of the Apotheosis of Augustus. It is the sink- 
ing of 78 years from the Roman calendar, which makes it appear 78 
years older than it really is. Moreover, by sinking these 78 years 
from the latter instead of from the former part of the calendar, the 
sera of Salivahana is sometimes thrown into A. D. 78. The identity 
of the Salivahanic and Augustan seras was asserted by Nicoli di 
Conti; and repeated by Higgins, Anacal, I, 763;- who noticed that 
' ' since the Romans have entered India, the Hindus accepted the birth 
of Augustus Cffisar for the sera of Salivahana." These statements 
have been confirmed by the discovery of the identity of Aurguti Ti- 



I66 A NEW CHRONOLOGY-. 

rounal and Augustus Quirinus. See Rome, B. C. 63. Thetranslation 
of "Cross-borne " is from Maurice, " Brah. Fraud Exposed," p. 161. 

B. C. 78, Egypt. — Deification of Ptolemy IX. as tlie god Diony- 
sios, whose coming had been foretold by the priests of Osiris, and 
whose mission upon earth was to restore peace and happiness to man- 
kind. His assumption of the rdle of Dionysios is mentioned by Di- 
odorus Siculus, who visited Egypt during his reign. 

B. C. 78, Mecca. — Aera of the Caaba temple, whose linen or 
silken veil "was first offered by a pious king of the Homerites, who 
reigned 700 years before the time of Mahomet." Hence, 622 (year 
of Mahomet) from 700 leaves 78. Abulfeda in vit. Mahomet, c. 6, 
cited by Gibbon, V, 191. The Caaba is not mentioned by Agath- 
arcides, who wrote A. U. 650, but it is mentioned by Diodorus, who 
wrote A. U. 746; hence it was probably erected during the interval. 
It is again mentioned, together with its venerated Black Stone, by 
Maximus of Tyre, in the second century. Gibbon, V, 192 n. The 
Black Stone is held by Higgins to typify the Messianic Buddha; by 
others, the virgin mother of Buddha. The epoch of the Caaba sera 
appears to have been midsummer. Gibbon, V, 186 i'z. Yet Stanley, 
(Hist. Phil. Ldn., 1687, p. 1066,) says the Arabians celebrated the 
birthday of the Lord on the 24th day of the tenth month. Hislop, 
T. B., 94. 

B. C. 78, Rome. — ^ra of Quintus Sertorius, who, it is pre- 
tended, was born in Nursia, near the headwaters of the Arno in 
Italy, in the year B. C. 125, exactly one saccular interval before 
the Apotheosis and the wrongful celebration of the Ludi Saeculares 
by Augustus; a circumstance that leads to the suspicion that the 
latter may have been anticipated in his alterations of the calendar by 
either Sylla or Sertorius, both of whom set themselves up for gods. 
Sertorius took sides with Marius in the civil war. After the defeat 
of the latter, he went to Spain, where he raised a force of rebelUous 
Romans and native provincials, with which he kept the field for sev- 
eral years, successfully resisting the arms of Sylla, Metellus and 
Pompey. It is alleged that in order to augment his influence with the 
Spaniards, Sertorius pretended that he was the miraculous progeny 
of the Deity by the Virgin Rhea and that a white fawn which always 
accompanied him was the agent of communications vouchsafed to 
him from heaven. He appears to have been a Dionysian and an initiate 
of the Eleusinian mysteries. He had been allied with King Mith- 
radates of Pontus, where the Dionysian cult was in universal esteem. 
(Florus, III, 5). Sertorius was treacherously stabbed to death B. C. 



^RAS. 167 

73 by the members of his council or " Senate " who had invited him 
to supper with that object and who doubtless were rewarded for their 
services by the aristocratic party in Rome. 

B. C. 70, Sinope. — ^ra recovered from coins. W. Wroth, Gr. 
Coins, ed. R. S. Poole. Wroth also uses the Sinopian sera of B. C. 

45, q- V. 

B. C. 64, Antioch. — ^ra discovered on coins by Cardinal Henry 
Noris, "Annus et Epochge Syro-Macedonum," Lipsae, 4to, 1696, p. 
156. He says that this sera agreed with Olym. clxxviii, 4. He sup- 
poses that it commemorated the action of Pompey, who in that year 
drove Tigranes out of Syria. In reality, it marks the Christian year 
of Salivahana, whose sera Augustus lowered by 78 years and the 
Sacred College afterwards increased by 15 or 16 years, making it 
fall in B. C. 6;^ or 64, whereas its true date is A. D. o or A. D. i. 
The Csesarian sera of Antioch, which was in common use throughout 
the West, down to the seventh century, commenced B. C. 48, q. v. 

B. C. 64, Rome. — Year of the miraculous Conception of Atia, or 
Maia, the mother of Augustus Csesar, who was worshipped during 
his lifetime as the Son of God, the Living God, the Sacro-sanct, 
Dionysius, Mercury, etc. Suetonius, in vita; Pliny; Tacitus; Virgil; 
Ovid; " Middle Ages Revisited," Appendix V; Rushforth, "Latin 
Inscriptions," ch. V; " Monumentum Ancyranum"; Duruy's " Hist. 
Rome," etc. The Conception occurred at Martinmas. 

B. C. 63, India. — Aera of Salivahana, or Vicramaditya, the re- 
incarnation of les Chrishna; these deities being evidently one. Col. 
Wilford (Asiat. Res. vol. IX) says that: "In general the Hindus 
know but one Vicramaditya, but the learned acknowledge four; and 
when at my request they produced written authorities, I was greatly 
surprised to find no less than eight or nine. . . . Every Vicrama- 
ditya is made to wage war against an antagonist called Salivahana, 
Salavan, and often denominated Nrishina, Nagendra, etc., except 
one, whose name was Maha-Bat, and that of his followers Mahabhata- 
dicas, that is to say Mahomet and the Mahometans." Vicramaditya 
was granted sway over the entire world for 1000 years; after which 
Salivahana, "a divine child born of a virgin and the son of Tacshaca, 
a carpenter," would deprive him of his kingdom. In the Cumarica- 
c'handra it was predicted that this would happen after the expiration 
of Calijoga 3100. Toward the end of his millenial term Vicrama- 
ditya sent out to find the Expected One, that he might destroy him; 
on the contrary, he was himself destroyed by Salivahana, the Divine 
Child, then but five years of age. Col. Wilford refers to Major 



l68 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Mackenzie's " Vicrama-charitra " and believes that this legend is 
" derived from the apochryphal gospel of Christ," an opinion which 
is at variance with the conclusions of the same author in vol. V of 
the "Asiat. Researches." It is also at variance with the monuments. 
Wilford repeats that to every Vicramaditya there was a correspond- 
ing Salivahana, so that virtually the sera of one is that of the other; 
indeed "originally," /. e., in the chronological lists in the Puranas, 
they were considered but as one individual. That they were the 
same is also the opinion of Di Conti, Marsden, Prinsep, Tod, Cun- 
ningham, Higgins, Massey and other orientalists and critics. . The 
sera which the Cumarica-c'handra predicted, when Vicramaditya or 
Salivahana would appear, originally tallied with that of the apothe- 
osis of Augustus. The Augustan alteration of the calendar put the 
sera of Salivahana back to B. C. 78 and the subsequent alteration by 
the Latin Sacred College has put it forward to B. C. d^t- By deduct- 
ing and adding the sunken and restored years from and to the wrong 
end of the calendar and by other arithmetical means, this sera has 
been cast into B. C. 58, (Sewell's "Ind. Cal.," 1896) B. C. 57, B. C. 
56 and A. D. 78. The 141 years of difference between the two 
Jain seras mark the extreme limits of these variants, /. e., B. C. 6t^ 
and A. D. 78; and while it proves that one is post-christian, it im- 
plies that the other is pre-christian. Mr. Sewell (op. cit.) also shows 
that an Indian sidereal year, or the beginning of a new series of 
Jovian cycles, dates from A. D. 78 : a circumstance that must have 
added to the confusion which has been made to surround the sera of 
les Chrishna or Salivahana. 

Cunningham says that the sera of Salivahana or Vicramaditya is 
commonly used in all Northern India, except Bengal, where it is 
only partially employed. In different parts of India the head of the 
Vicrama calendar is either the first day, or the first day of the full 
moon of Chaitra, or Ashadha, or Addi, or Assar, or Kartika. (Sewell). 
In the Hindu Panjangam for 1897 the year begins with Chaitra ist 
(our April 13th) and Houli (Yule) falls on April 17th, which is the 
first day of the full moon following the vernal equinox. Rickmers pre- 
fers the full moon of Chaitra. This corresponds with the Persian New 
Year day, or Neuroz. Houli or Yule is sacred to les Chrishna and 
is celebrated in most parts of India by persons of both sexes and 
all ages, even by the Moslems. The ceremonies are gay and joyous. 
Coloured balls made of the red flour of Juba are thrown about, as in 
the confetti carnival of the Italians. It is a festival of universal 
rejoicing, in which the women join with great hilarity and pleasantry, 



^RAS. 169 

shouting Houli! Houli! Houli! When Chrishna descended to earth 
he encountered the nine Houlis (Muses) and danced with them. Noel 
citing Turner's ** Ambassy to Thibet." The number of the Houlis 
probably stood for the nine days of the ancient week, or nundinum, 
of the solar calendar. Like the other oriental incarnations Saliva- 
hana's advent was foretold by the astrologers and it appears in the 
Cumarica Chandra ; his celestial father was les-nu ; his putative father 
Taishaca, the carpenter; his virgin mother, Maia; his star, the Mes- 
sianic. Originally the nativity of Salivahana was fixed at Easter 
B. C. I ; it now stands, owing to the alteration of the Roman calen- 
dar, at the winter solstice, B.C. 6^. Salivahana was born in a cottage, 
among shepherds, but was immediately recognised by seers as the 
Expected One. His head was rayed; his complexion black; his hair 
woolly. He performed numerous miracles, fasted 40 days, had 12 
disciples, was persecuted by Vicramaditya and overcame him. At 
length he was condemned for his doctrines and died upon the cross, 
(Higgins' Anacal., I, 662) at the vernal equinox, upon which, the sun 
was eclipsed. He descended to hell, released the condemned, re- 
mained three days and nights, rose again and ascended to heaven, 
an event which is celebrated by the Indian Houli, His principal sac- 
rament was baptism, his symbol the -j- and his zodion, the Fishes. 

B. C. 63, Asia Minor. — Christian equivalent of the year stamped 
by Pompey as his own sera upon the coins of the numerous cities 
which he conquered in Asia Minor, cities which probably yielded to 
his supernatural pretensions as much as to his valour. Noris, op. cit. 
Humphreys, 548. 

B. C. 63, Rome. — Elevation of Caius Julius Caesar to the office 
of Pontifex Maximus. Greswell, F. C, II, 42, 

B. C. 63, Home. — Sept. 23. Nativity of Caius Octavius Csepias, 
afterwards called Caius J. C. Octavius, and afterwards Augustus, of 
the gens Maria, the putative son of Caius Octavius, a tradesman and 
the son of a baker, by his wife, Atia, or Maia, who was niece to Ju- 
lius Csesar. In B. C. 59 Augustus was adopted by L. Philippus and 
in B. C. 47 he was adopted by Julius Caesar, as his own son. Augus- 
tus was born in A. U. 691, in the consulship of Cicero and in the vil- 
lage of Velitre, near Rome. Its walls having been blasted by light- 
ning, the sacred oracle was interrogated, and replied that the future 
Ruler of the World would arise from the spot. By this was meant 
the Advent of the god Augustus. His advent was also predicted in 
the Sibylline books and by the astrologer, Figulus. Julius Marathus 
reported that five or six months before the Nativity of Augustus, it 



170 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

was predicted by a public miracle that Nature was about to bring 
forth a Prince to rule the World. Upon this, the Senate enacted that 
no male child born that year should be suffered to live ; yet Augus- 
tus escaped. His father had designed to sacrifice him. From this 
danger he also escaped. (Dion Cass.) In the Theologoumenon, 
written by Asclepiades of Mendes, it is related that Atia (or Maia) 
having fallen asleep in the temple of Apollo, a sacred serpent slipped 
close to her, and afterwards left her. Upon awakening, she seemed 
to know what had happened, and purified. When the mark upon her 
person could not be concealed, she ceased to frequent the public 
baths. In the tenth month {inense decimo) after this miracle she was 
delivered of Augustus, who, for the reason stated, was known as the 
Son of the god Apollo, or the Sun. The Conception, therefore, oc- 
curred on the winter solstice, now known as Christmas. Before Maia 
was brought to bed of him she dreamed that her body was scattered 
to the stars and encompassed the Universe. Octavius, her husband, 
also dreamed that from within her shone the bright beams of the 
Sun. In the Curia, Augustus, having told P. Nigidius the hour of 
his Nativity, the latter proclaimed him the Lord of the Universe. 
Afterwards Octavius (the putative father) consulted the oracle of 
Liber Pater (Dionysius) in Thrace, and when wine was poured upon 
the altar, it blazed into a flame that enveloped the steeple (fastigium) 
of the temple and ascended to heaven; a miracle that had occurred 
but once before, when Alexander the Great had sacrificed upon the 
same altar. On the following night, Octavius dreamed that his 
heaven-born Son grasped the Thunderbolt and Sceptre and wore the 
triumphant robe of Jupiter, his head surrounded by a radiance of 
glory, his chariot decked with laurel, whilst yoked to it, were six 
steeds of purest white. C. Drusus relates that while yet a babe, Au- 
gustus, being left in his cradle, was found next morning upon the 
turret of the mansion, facing the rising Sun. So soon as he was old 
enough to speak, he reproved a troop of clamorous animals, and 
from that moment they were hushed to silence. Q. Catalus dreamed 
that Augustus was Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Marcus Cicero dreamed 
that Augustus was let down from heaven by a golden chain. Dio. , 
xlv, 2, says that at the precocious age of 12, Augustus was familiar 
with Greek and made a funeral oration in public. At 16 he went to 
study at the temple of Apollonia, in Epirus. ^Vhen Augustus went 
with Agrippa to the studio of Theogenes at Apollonia, and divulged 
the hour of his Nativity, Theogenes, who was one of the wisest men 
of his age, fell down and worshipped him as the Almighty {adora- 



iERAS. 171 

vitque earn). In memory of this circumstance, Augustus afterwards 
struck a coin with the Capricorn; that being his natal zodion. Ovid, 
in the Pontine letters, which are still extant, addresses or alludes to 
Augustus as God, or, the Living God, (Theos.) He built a shrine 
to this god in his house at Tomis and there worshipped him, both 
during the life-time of Augustus and after his Ascension to heaven. 
In the Fourth Eclogue Virgil addresses Augustus as the divine Son 
of God, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin and Prince of Peace ; and 
in the ^neid, VI, 789-93, as Augustus Csesar, Son of God. Horace 
calls him "Maia's winged Child," "Father and Guardian of the hu- 
man race," "The Living God " {praesens divus), etc., while Manilius 
invokes him as "the colleague of Jove, thyself a God; all of these 
writers being contemporaries of this divinity. Pliny and numerous 
others of a later age allude to him as God (Theos, or Deos), or the 
Son of God (Divus filius). The Senate recognized him as the long 
predicted and expected Sacrosanct, or Messiah, a fact that Augustus 
mentions in his will, which is carved on the temple of Ancyra, still 
standing with the inscription upon it. The year of his Apotheosis 
was B. C. 15, when a tax was laid upon the Roman world. The name 
of one of the months, Sextilis, was changed to Augustus, an honor 
accorded only to gods. At first Augustus only claimed to be the Son 
of God; afterwards he accepted the title and prayers due to the Cre- 
ator and, as such, was addressed in the temples which were dedi- 
cated to his worship. He erected near the Tarpeian Rock in Rome, a 
temple, which was inscribed, "to Augustus, the First Born of God." 
Baronius, App., XXVI, p. 447. Frickius, cap. X, p. 98, says that the 
inscription proclaimed him to be the Son of ApoJlo and the Virgin 
Mother. Many of these temples, called Augusteums, are still stand- 
ing; and one of them, in Vienne, Dauphiny, has the nail holes of the 
original block letter dedication cut upon it. In the inscriptions of 
the recently exhumed public edifices of Ephesus, Augustus is ad- 
dressed as 2^05" @eof, the Son of God. A special corporation of 
priests, Collegium Sodalium Augustalium, was instituted to conduct 
this worship, and 11 cities of Asia contended for the honor of erect- 
ing a new Augusteum. As the supreme pontiff of the Roman Em- 
pire, Augustus lawfully acquired and exercised authority over all 
cardinals, priests, curates, monks, nuns, flamens, augurs, vestal vir- 
gins, temples, altars, shrines, sanctuaries and monasteries, and over 
all religious rites, ceremonies, festivals, holidays, dedications, canon- 
izations, marriages, divorces, adoptions, benefices, wills, burying- 
grounds^ fairs and other ecclesiastical subjects and matters. Altars 



172 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

have been found at Ancyra, Lyons, Leon (Spain) and other places, 
inscribed to him as the Son of God ; and numerous coins are extant 
bearing the same title. Says Tacitus: " The reverence due to the 
gods was no longer exclusive. Augustus claimed equal worship. 
Temples were built and statues were erected to him; a mortal man 
was worshipped and priests and pontiffs were appointed to pay him 
impious homage." Even the emperors who succeeded him, among 
them Tiberius, Nero and Hadrian, built altars and offered sacrifices 
to Augustus. The common people wore little images of Augustus 
suspended from the neck. Great images and shrines of the same god 
were erected in the highways and resorted to for sanctuary. There 
were a thousand such shrines in Rome alone. Augustus wore on his 
head a pontifical mitre surmounted by a Latin cross, an engraving 
of which, taken from a coin of the Colonia Julia Gemella, appears in 
Harduini, de Nummis Antiquis, plate I. The number of prodigies 
and miracles related of or concerning him is endless; among others, 
that the ghost of Julius presaged his victory at Philippi; that fishes 
leapt from the sea to do him homage; that a thunderbolt struck the 
letter C from the title of " Caesar" upon his statue, and thus made it 
"^sar," or "^Esus, " which, in the Etruscan language, signified the 
deity (deus). The image of Augustus upon the coins of his own mint- 
age, or that of his vassals, is surrounded with the halo of light which 
indicates divinity, and on the reverse of the coins are displayed the 
various emblems of religion, such as the mitre, cross, crook, fishes, 
labarum, and the Buddhic and Bacchic, or Dionysian monogram of 
p. His heavenly character was also attested by the miracle of his 
touch, which was sufficient to cure deformity or disease. So univer- 
sally were his divine origin and attributes conceded, that many peo- 
ple, in dying, left their entire fortunes to his sacred (personal) fisc, 
in gratitude, as they themselves expressed it, for having been per- 
mitted to live during the incarnation and earthly sojourn of this Son 
of God. In the course of 20 years he thus inherited no less than 
35,000,000 aurei, each containing as much gold as the modern Eng- 
lish sovereign. Many potentates bequeathed him not only their pri- 
vate fortunes, but also their kingdoms and people in vassalage. Not 
only was his godship accepted, it was exacted, both during and after 
his life-time. The senator Afidius Memla, for refusing to take an 
oath in the name of the god Augustus, was heavily punished; and the 
ancient city of Cyzicus, for neglecting the worship of Augustus, the 
Son of God, was deprived of its privileges. For removing the head 
from an image of Augustus, several persons were put to the torture 



jERAS, 173 

and others executed. For changing one's clothes in the presence of 
his image, the penalty was death. For whipping a slave near a shrine 
of Augustus, the penalty was death. For defacing the effigy of Au- 
gustus upon a coin, the penalty was death. For defacing his effigy 
upon a ring, the penalty was death. For accepting honours in a dis- 
tant province on the same day that somewhat similar honours had 
been decreed to Augustus, the penalty was death. Caius Silanus, 
pro-consul of Asia, for "irreverence to the divinity of Augustus," 
was excommunicated, and banished to the desert isle of Cythera 
(Cerigo) and forbidden fire or water. Even Apuleia Varilla, a niece 
or grand-niece of Augustus, for alluding to him irreverently, barely 
escaped a capital sentence. In B. C. 9, Herod, who, after the battle 
of Actium, had acknowledged and worshipped Augustus as the Son 
of God, went so far in his homage as to celebrate the panageia of 
Jasius, or the pentaeteris, or five years' sacred games, and to call 
them Caesar's games. These games were celebrated by Augustus as 
Caesar's games and were afterwards kept up by a decree of Tiberius, 
which named them the Augustan games. At a private feast which 
became known as the Supper of the Twelve Gods, twelve intimate 
friends of Augustus were attired as gods and goddesses, himself per- 
sonating Apollo. His favorite titles, however, were Janus Quirinus 
and Dionysius, and as he had been initiated in the mysteries of Ceres 
he was commonly worshipped as Augustus Dionysius, a statue of him 
in this character being depicted in Duruy's "Rome." He gave evi- 
dence of his humility and charity by publicly begging alms for the 
poor once a year, on the New Year day, holding his own hand forth 
to receive what was offered. As he approached his 76th year his 
coming demise was foretold by the sacred oracle, and when he sank 
at last to a peaceful rest, he was mourned by the whole empire. A 
stately funeral bore his remains to the mausoleum, his dirge was 
chaunted by the children of the nobles, the Senate decreed him divine 
honors, and the Senator Numericus Atticus swore that he saw his 
effigy ascend to heaven. A splendid representation of the Ascen- 
sion, carved upon a huge cameo, was presented by the Emperor 
Baldwin II. to Louis IX. of France, and is now in the cabinet of 
France. It is depicted by Duruy, op. cit, Suetonius says that Au- 
gustus died on the 14th calends of September. For sacerdotal rea- 
sons and in order to make it agree with a certain ancient festival 
both of India and Egypt, his death and Ascension day has been fixed 
to August 29th, still dedicated to " Saint Augustine." For a similar 
reason his Nativity had previously been altered by transposing the 



174 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

months of February and August, as mentioned by John of Nikios. 
This, or like tamperings with the calendar, evidently arrested the at- 
tention of Dr. Clinton and Sir Cornewall Lewis, the former of whom 
reproves Archbishop Usher for venturing to make precise calculations 
as to the position of the months prior to and after the Julian correc- 
tion; "a precision, "says he, "for which we have no authority." Fasti, 
Hell., Ill, xi. Nicoli di Conti, who travelled in Bengal and other 
parts of India during the early part of the 15th century, declares that 
in the orient, Augustus and the Indian Vicramaditya (or Salivahana) 
were regarded as the same. "De Comitibus," published in A. D. 
1444. A famous holiday is still observed in India which may have 
furnished a date (Aswin ist, or August 29th) to the Augustan cult 
of Rome. See B. C. 11 76. This is the festival of Aurguti Tirounal, 
which is celebrated in the month of Pretachi, or Bhadra, (Buddha,) 
and lasts nine days, to Aswin ist, answering to our August 20-29. It 
commemorates the birthday of Quichena. For Aurguti Quichena 
read Augustus Quirinus, and consult Nicoli di Conti, The festival 
is especially observed by shepherds, from the tradition that Quichena, 
whose emblem was the Lamb, was born in that class. The ceremon- 
ies include a procession, in which is borne the statue of les-nu, or 
Chrishna, or Quichena, or Quirinus, for these names are all one, A 
cocoa-nut shell, containing some small silver coins (formerly half- 
denarii, now fanams), is suspended from the porches of the houses. 
When the procession arrives opposite to them, the shells are smashed 
and the coins scattered. Tirounal is the Indian word for a chariot, 
which was the emblem stamped upon the reverse of those Roman 
quinarii whose export from Rome to India is so much deplored by 
Pliny. The obverse was stamped with the image of Augustus. 
Brugsch (Materiaux, 17), thinks that August 29th was celebrated as 
a feast day in Egypt so far back as the Vlth dynasty of Egypt, while 
Dr. Greswell, with ample warrant, regards the dates on Egyptian 
monuments as anachronical forgeries. The Indian Parasurama of 
B. C. 1 1 76, which celebrated the birth of Dennus (Dionysius) began 
Aswin ist, which coincided with our August 29th. Beside the au- 
thorities incidentally mentioned in this account the reader is referred 
to Seutonius, in "Aug.;" the Monumentum Ancyranum; Bundell 
Lewis on the Antiquities of Vienne; Lanciani, "Pagan and Chris- 
tian Rome;" Rev. A. Herbert, "Nimrod;" Dion. Cass.; Lucretius; 
Pliny, N. H. ; Macrobius; AUmer, " Les Gestes du dieu Auguste;" 
Mommsen, " Res Gestae divi Augusti;" Du Choul; the Corpus In- 
scriptionum Latinorum et Grsecorum; Rushforth, "Latin Inscrip- 



^RAS. 175 

tions;" Manigan, "Worship of the Emperors;" Josephus; Babelon, 
"Moneys of the Roman Republic;" Cohen, "Coins of the Republic 
and Empire;" John Penn, "Fourth Ecologue;" and the Dizionario 
Epigrafico de Ruggiero, art. "Augustus." In the last-named work 
nearly one hundred sacred titles, given to Augustus, are cited from 
marble and bronze monuments still extant. Among them are Jupi- 
ter Op. Max., Apollo, Janus, Quirinus, Dionysius, Mercurius, Vol- 
canus, Neptunus, Liber Pater, Savus (Saviour), etc. The epigraphic 
symbols of the Augustan cult were the t and ? . 

B. C. 58, India. — ^ra of Vicramaditya, according to Stokvis 
and other chronologists. Sewell places it in B. C. 57; possibly a 
variation of B. C. 6^. 

B. C. 57, India. — Samvat or Sumbat, according to Sewell and the 
Pandits, the latter fixing it at the expiration of the 3044th year of 
the Calijoga and giving it also the name of Vicramaditya, of whose 
sera it is evidently a perversion. Of the various Indian seras con- 
nected with the lunar-solar year, this has now become the principal 
one. It is chiefly used in Telingana, Hindostan proper and Nepal, 
but not much in Bengal, and scarcely at all in the Peninsular. As 
the festivals and religious observances of the Hindus and Buddhists 
have been made to depend on the lunar reckoning (c'handra-mana) 
the Samvat, which is a luni-solar division of the year, has been 
adapted to seras which once were on a solar basis. The Samvat 
"begins with the Hindu luni-solar year." The Pandits "Chron.,"p. 
xxix. This is Easter, or the first full moon after the vernal equinox. 
Duff says the new moon. Dr. Hales fixes Samvat in B. C. 56 and 
says that a copper plate has been found in the ruins of Mongeer 
(Monghyr) in Bengal, on the Ganges, dated Samvat 33, which he 
makes equal to B. C. 23. The place mentioned was anciently called 
Mudgalpur and once possessedahandsomeBrahminical temple which 
the Moslems converted into a mosque. The river at Monghyr is still 
used by the Hindus for ritual bathing (baptism) and pilgrimages. 
Thornton. 

B. C. 57, Gaul. — Aera of Divitiacus, sovereign-pontiff of Gaul, 
for so is he regarded by Higgins, in his ' ' Celtic Druids, " p. 1 2. This 
view is founded upon various passages in Caesar de Bell. Gall, and 
one in Cicero de Div., 1,41, in which Cicero ascribes to Divitiacus the 
gift of prophecy. This was common to every augur and haruspice, 
not only among the Druids, but also among the Etruscans and Ro- 
mans. The supernatural pretensions of Divitiacus were probably 



1 76 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

greatly modified by the victorious Caesar. The sera, is possibly a va- 
riation of B. C. 6^. 

B. C. 53, Ponlus. — Deification of Deiotaurus, tetrach of Galatia, 
whose city of Piscenus or Pesinus was the seat of the worship of 
Maia, Mother of the Gods. As a reward for his services to the Ro- 
mans in their Asiatic wars and especially the one against Midthra- 
dates, king of Pontus, the Senate conferred upon Deiotauras the 
title of king of Lesser Armenia; whereupon he declared himself to 
be the Son of God and began to build a new city in which his wor- 
ship was intended to be conducted. "What do you mean," saidM. 
Crassus to him, * ' by proceeding to build a new city when the Twelfth 
Hour, (meaning the Divine Year), is at hand"? Deiotaurus alter- 
nately embraced the causes of Pompey and Caesar and by the latter 
was confirmed in his title of king, but probably warned at the same 
time, to drop his impious pretensions. In B. C. 46 the grandson of 
Deiotaurus is said to have instigated Phillip, his physician, to accuse 
the king of desiring to poison Caesar, while the latter was on his way 
from Egypt to Rome. From this accusation Deiotaurus was success- 
fully defended by Cicero and Brutus, the discourse of the former 
being still extant. Cicero, Letters, III, 225; and Orat. pro Deio- 
taurus. 

B. C. 49, Antioch. — Aera of Antioch. See B. C. 48, Antioch. 

B. C. 48, Rome. — Apotheosis, aera and calendar, of Julius Caesar. 
At the Winter Solstice of this year (December 25) Julius Caesar was 
publicly acknowledged and proclaimed in the Temple of Jupiter 
Amnion as the Son of God. Like the various pretenders to divinity 
who had preceded him, Caesar was of divine origin, the offspring 
(somewhat distantly removed) of the Celestial or Virgin Venus and 
Anchises. He was a ten months' child and, like Salivahana, he was 
cross-borne and issued from the side of his mother, of whom he was 
delivered by an operation that still bears his name: he was born 
laughing, while a Star appeared over the place of his birth to an- 
nounce the auspicious event to mankind. Upon being ofiicially 
recognised as the expected Messiah he secluded himself from the 
public view, became difficult of access, clothed himself in a pontifical 
robe, wore a sacred veil upon his head and rich slippers upon his feet, 
which those who approached his throne were required to kiss. (Sue- 
tonius). "Julius Caesar ordered a coin to be struck with his effigy, 
holding a sword in his right hand, and a book in the other, with an 
inscription that imported he was Caesar both by one and the other." 
Du Prez, Notes on Horace, in Usum Delphini. This was the origin 



iERAS. 177 

of the Roman pontifical claim to both "temporals and spirituals." 
It was evidently for these pretensions that Caesar suffered death at 
the hands of the Roman nobles and not for the inferior offense im- 
puted to him by the Poet, of having aspired to be a king; for he was 
already, and by the sufferance of the entire nation, much more than 
a king. But Shakespeare wrote at a time when the truth of these 
matters dared not be discussed; and it must be admitted that he 
made the most of the only motive which he could safely venture to 
assign for the assassination of Rome's transcendent hero. Violent 
commotions of the earth and six hours of darkness followed his 
death. He was not only deified by decree of the Senate, but wor- 
shipped as a god by the people. "When his heir, Augustus, first ex- 
hibited those sacred games which had been consecrated to his mem- 
ory there arose a comet in the afternoon which appeared for a week 
together and was believed to be Caesar's soul in heaven ; for which 
reason there was always a Star placed upon the vertex of his statue." 
(Suetonius, in vita). The date of the assassination was the ides of 
March, B. C. 44. Picot. Among the changes effected in the Roman 
state by this greatest of men none is of greater interest at the pres- 
ent distance of time than his reform of the calendar. He adopted 
what is now known as the Julian solar year of 365^ days, appor- 
tioning 365 days to the year of twelve months and intercalating the 
remaining quarter of a day into every fourth year, known to us as 
the leap year. He began this new solar calendar of Rome with Jan- 
uary ist in a year that, according to Smith's Die. of the Bible, cor- 
responded with A. U. 707, or B. C. 47. Furgault says January i, 
B. C. 46. Greswell says December 30, B. C. 46. Picot says Janu- 
ary I, B. C. 45. Dr. Smith's date was selected by him perhaps be- 
cause it corresponds more nearly with the Caesarian aeras of Antioch 
and Laodicea. As for the day, January ist, it was already the be- 
ginning of the consular or civil year; and it appears to have been so 
ever since B. C. 156, q. v. There is every reason to suppose that 
Caesar did not alter it; yet Dr. Greswell, in order to complete his 
theory of a primitive Hebrew year, has attached the Julian calendar 
to the epoch of December 30th. Assuming Dr. Smith's date to be 
correct, Caesar's calendar commenced one week after his deification 
at Alexandria. The date in Censorinus corresponds with B. C. 46. 
Stokvis says January i, B. C. 45. Dr. Hales says that the first day 
of Caesar's calendar began a lunar cycle; but unless he means that 
Caesar's calendar was a lunar one, which it certainly was not, the re- 
mark appears to lack significance. 



I 78 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

B. C. 48, Thessaly. — Battle of Pharsalia, at which Julius Caesar 
defeated Pompey. In the time of Lucan, which was about a century 
after this famous battle, its date was not known. 

Tempora signavit leviorum Roma malorum. 
Hunc voluit nescire diem. Luc. vii, 410. 
Modern chronologists usually fix it on August 9, B. C. 48. Gres- 
well, F. C, I, 254 «, says " Sextilis 9," which he makes equal to 
June 5, B. C. 48. Lucan's expression possibly refers to the altera- 
tion of the calendar by Augustus. 

B. C. 48, Tyre. — Cresarian nsra of Tyre, Tishri, ist, B. C. 48 
(Syrian), or Gorpireus, ist, 49 (Greek). 

B. C. 48, Antioch. — Caesarian aera of Antioch. Greek epoch, 
Gorpiffius ist (as in Tyre) ; Syrian epoch, Sextilis (or August) 9th. 
The Syrians, however, fix the aera in B. C. 47- Evagrius, III, 33, 
fixes it in B. C. 48-9. Woolhouse and Stokvis say September ist, 
B. C. 48. Cardinal Henry Noris attempted to prove by means of 
two coins that the jera of Antioch was in B. C. 49. One of these 
is of Tiberius, with " Tiberius Augustus, sub Flacco Antiochensium, 
Anno LXXXII," in Greek. He says that as Flaccus waspro-pr:etor 
of Syria, A. D. :^z, it follows from this inscription that the xra of 
Antioch was B. C. 49. Naturally; but the year of the pro-prtetor- 
ship is by no means certain. The other coin, which is ascribed to 
Galba, is without his name and only says "sub Muciano: Antioch- 
ensium: Anno CXVII," in Greek. Noris takes this Muciano to be 
Publius Licinius Mucianus, mentioned in Tacitus, Hist. II, whom he 
supposes was pro-pr^tor in A. D. 68. The validity of the deduction 
depends upon the years when these men were pro-prretors in Syria, 
of which there appears to be no certainty. Upon a comparison of 
all the evidence on this subject, the year B. C. 48 has been deter- 
mined as the most likely one. 

B. C. 48, Pontus. — Ccesarian aera of Neo Claudipolis, recovered 
from coins. W. Wroth (R. S. Poole), "Cat. Gr. Coins." See also 
B. C. 7 and A. D. 64. 

B. C. 47, Laodicca. — .Era mentioned by Hieronym^us. Clinton, 
F. R., I, 317- Also recovered from coins. Picot, I, 470. 

B. C. 45, Sinope. — Aera recovered from coins. Picot, I, 470. 
See B. C. 70. 

B. C. 44, Rome. — Assassination of Julius Caesar on the ides of 
March. Some chronologists say B. C. 45. Cf. " Middle Ages Re- 
visited." App. V. 



^RAS. 179 

B. C. 42, Rome. — Battle and sera of Phillipi. Epoch, September 
9. Greswell, K. H., II, 114; V, 228. 

B. C. 42, Ehodes. — Roman gera of Rhodes, as deduced from 
coins. The principal dates, relating to this once foremost maritime 
state, which have survived the wreck of time, are as follows: After 
the Persian war, about B. C. 470, Rhodes became tributary to Ath- 
ens; B. C. 412, Rhodes joins the Peloponnesians; 408, the three 
Rhodian cities of lal-Yssus, Lindus, and Camirus, unite to build or 
improve the great port of Rhodes; 394, Rhodes becomes subject to 
Athens; 357-5, during the Social War Rhodes defies Athens and 
achieves her independence; 351, Rhodes sues for Athenian protec- 
tion, and through the influence of Demosthenes, she obtains it; 331, 
Rhodes is conquered by Alexander the Great and receives a Mace- 
donian garrison; about B. C. 320, Rhodes again achieves her inde- 
pendence and now enters upon the most glorious period of her career, 
during which she establishes the Maritime Code which still goes by 
her name; 285, Rhodes is besieged by Demetrius Poliorcetes who is 
defeated and leaves behind him such a vast number of bronze en- 
gines, implements and weapons that the Rhodians are enabled to 
erect a trophy from them; 280, this trophy, an immense bronze 
statue of the SUN, familiarly known as the Colossus^ is erected near 
the port, not stradding it, as is represented in popular engravings; 
224, the Colossus is overthrown by an earthquake; 48, Rhodes es- 
pouses the cause of Julius Caesar; 43, in revenge for which, the city 
is attacked, captured and plundered by Cassius; 42, but in the fol- 
lowing year it is succoured and protected by the troops of Augustus, 
after which time the island becomes an appanage of Rome. 

B. C. 41, Sicily. — Aera of Sextus Pompeius, the real son of 
Pompey the Great and the pretended son of Neptune, or Taras. He 
demanded to be worshipped as a god on earth. Born B. C. 75. De- 
feated by Augustus and killed B. C. 35. 

B. C. 40, Judea. — After the assassination of Caesar several provin- 
cial rulers impiously set themselves up as gods on earth and demanded 
to be worshipped as such. Among these were Herod, Marc Antony, 
Sextus Pompeius and Augustus; the last one destroying or subduing 
all the rest. Herod was born in B. C. 73, (Hole), or B. C. 66, 
(Hales). He assumed the godship in Olym. clxxxv, B. C. 40), when 
Cn. DomitiusCalvinus II, and C. Asinius Pollio were consuls. Upon 
his coins appeared the sacred symbol of the cross, in several forms, 
mostly with "Year III." His employment of the cross on his coins 
was probably interdicted by Augustus and Antony, who, however, 



l8o A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

subsequently confirmed him in his kingdom, but not in his godship. 
After the battle of Actium he paid a relief of 800 talents to Augus- 
tus. Herod rebuilt the Jewish temple to Yaova, but erected a larger 
one to Augustus, called the Caesareum. The City of Samaria he re- 
named Sebastos, and throughout his life he erected numerous temples 
to Augustus, which he named after him and in which the worship of 
Augustus, as god upon earth, was enjoined and conducted. Herod 
reigned 37 years and died B. C. 4. Josephus, Ant. XIV, xiv, 5; 
XIV, xiv, 15; XIV, xvi, 4; XVII, viii, i; Wars, I, xxxiii, 8. 

B. C. 40, Rome. — Aera of the sacerdotal Advent of Augustus and 
(as it afterwards proved, of the temporary) closure of the temple of 
Janus, which occurred after the treaty with Marc Antony, in the 
consulship of Cn. Domitius Calvinus II and C. Asinius Pollio, A.U. 
714. This is the Advent and the ^ra sung by Virgil in the Fourth 
Eclogue. "The great months shall then begin to roll," etc. See 
Penn's elaborate Treatise on this subject. But Antony broke the 
Peace, the temple of Janus had to be reopened, the contest was re- 
newed, and, after the battle of Actium, a new sera, that of the 
Apotheosis of Augustus, B. C. 15, had to be substituted for the one 
thus prematurely glorified by the court poet. An Augustan coin of 
this year, A. U. 714, is stamped " Imp. Caesar Divi F," (Penn's 
"Fourth Eclogue," 153). The word sera itself is derived from 
this epoch. A, meaning anno; E R, erat; A, Augusti. Vide Isidore 
("Origines" V, 36) ; Sepulveda; and Vossius. This sera of Augustus 
is used by the monk Polydore Vergil (15th century) in his De Rerum 
Inventoribus, ed, 1868, p. 124. 

B. C. 38, Rome. — So-called Spanish sera, January ist. For ex- 
ample, a Spanish charter dated 1292 agrees with our A. D. 1254. 
Archeol. Jour., XLVII, 26. This is the Julian (Caesarian) sera, 
whose equivalent in Anno Domini has been altered ten years. Rev, 
E. C. Brewster, "Die. Phrase and Fable," and Appleton's Encyc, 
say the Spanish sera began with the year when Spain fell under the 
dominion of Augustus. In such case it began B. C. 40. The Pan- 
dits fix it in A. U. 715, or B. C. 38, and regard it as "fictitious." It 
Avas only abolished in A. D. 1415, or 1422, down to which year it 
was used in Africa, Spain, Portugal and the Southern provinces of 
France. The Pandits' "Chron.," p. xxix. The months and days 
of this sera are those of the Julian calendar. 

B. C. 36, Pontus. — Aera of Cherronesus, or Chersonesus, in the 
Crimea, deduced from dates on coins. Koehne, I, 169. "Cher- 
sonesus, a town of the Heracleotae," (Pliny), on a small peninsular 



iERAS. l8l 

about the middle of the Crimean shore, is said to have been founded 
by the inhabitants of Heracleium, a city situated near the mouth of 
the Amisus in Pontus. This is probably just the reverse of the 
truth. The town of Kosleve, or Eupatoria, is supposed to stand on 
the site of Chersonesus. The aera of Chersonesus is astrological. It 
possibly also marks the date when "its freedom " was granted by 
Marc Antony. Pliny says the town was anciently called Megarice 
and afterwards Heraclia Chersonesus. 

B. C. 36. Leticas. — Aera of Leucadia, one of the Ionian Islands, 
now called Santa Maura. (See "Middle Ages Revisited," App. V). 
This aera, whether from Leucas, the White Horns, or from Leuca- 
dius, a surname of Apollo, is significant; because it appears to be 
exactly one astrological cycle after the sera of the Khazares and one 
cycle before the Hegira of Mahomet, See B.C. 694, and B. C. ^6, 
Pontus. 

B. C. 36, Asia Minor. — Marc Antony pretends to be an incar- 
nation of the deity and calls himself "the new Bacchus, the husband 
of Minerva and the lineal descendant of Hercules." Herbert (Nim- 
rod). The time was ripe for this. 

B. C. 31, Rome. — Battle of Actium, fought September 2 (Dion 
Cassius), B. C. 31. This was altered afterwards to August 29, to 
make the day tally with the festivals of the Augustan chronology, 
"Middle Ages Revisited," ch. VIII, note 18. It was employed by 
Josephus, Ant. XVIII, ii, i. It is said that amongst the Greeks 
of Antioch it was used so late as the ninth century, under the date 
of September i, B. C. 30; but this was probably the epoch of the 
First Indiction. The Actian sera was altered at a later period to 
December 25, B, C. 31, and finally to January i, B. C. 30. 

B. C. 30, Rome. — Aera of the First Indiction. The Indictions 
are alluded to in Malala, the Paschal Chronicon, and in the letters of 
Pliny the Younger to the emperor Trajan, during the first century 
of our sera; yet Gibbon II, 62, did not trace them higher than Con- 
stantine. 

B. C. 30, Egypt. — Augustan sera, first regnal year in Egypt. 
Epoch, January ist. Censorinus, XXI. This author, from his own 
year, namely, the consulate of Ulpius and Pontianus, which, accord- 
ing to the Christian calendar is fixed in A. D. 238, reckoned as fol- 
lows: From the origin of man to the Deluge of Oxyges, unknown; 
Oxyges to Inachus, about 400 years; Inachus to first Olympiad, 
about 400 years; Olympiad to present year, 1014 years; Founda- 
tion of Rome to present year, 991; calend« of January in calendar 



162 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

of Julius Cassar, to present year, 283 ; Augustan ^ra in Egypt, com- 
mencing with calends of January, to present year, 267 ; same in Rome, 
(Augustus VII and Agrippa III, Coss.,) 265 years. Assuming the 
Christian equivalent of his starting point to be correct, the deduc- 
tions given herein must follow. Greswell fixes the epoch of the 
Augustan sera in Egypt on Thoth ist, then August 31st; yet Censo- 
rinus is explicit as to the calends of January. 

B, C. 28, Rome. — First Augustan regnal year in Rome, two years 
later than his "sera" in Egypt, because "the Egyptians at this date 
had been for two years under the power and authority of Rome." 
Epoch, January ist. Censorinus, XXI. 

B. C. 28, Rome, — Year of the Nativity of ' ' Issus, son of Mariam, " 
namely, "Anno Alexandro, 304," as fixed by the Jews and Chris- 
tians. Albiruni, op. cit., 21. This date, if reckoned from the Apoth- 
eosis of Alexander, which took place in his 24th year, is equivalent 
to B. C. 28; if reckoned, as Albiruni reckons it, from the 27th year 
of Alexander, it is equivalent to B. C. 25, which is the year of the 
Lex Regia and accession of Augustus. In another place Albiruni 
says that the Christians of his time (tenth and nth centuries) fixed 
the Nativity of Jesus in Anno Augusto 43, which, he contends, is 
erroneous. Nicephorus Gregoras fixed it in Anno Augusto 42. See 
B. C. 5506. 

B. C. 27, Rome. — Augustan regnal sera, commencing February 
14. Woolhouse, op. cit. This is a curious combination of errors. 
The year results from deducting Censorinus' 238 from 265 and omit- 
ting A. D. o; the day results from Censorinus' remark that although 
the Augustan sera dated from the calends of January, the bill estab- 
lishing it was not enacted until the i6th calends of February. This 
is not February 14th, but January 17th. Haydn gives this year for 
the beginning of Augustus' reign. Stokvis says the same and gives 
two epochs, viz., February 14 and September 1. 

B. C. 25, Rome. — Lex Regia and Accession of Augustus Csesar, 
according to some chronologists. 

B. C. 25, Alexandria. — ^ra of the Nativity of "Issus, son of 
Mariam," according to Albiruni, who says that in his time it was so 
fixed by both the Jews and Christians, namely, in "Anno Alexandro, 
304." This last-named sera he commences with the 27th year of Al- 
exander's life. The year B. C. 25 is given by some chronologists as 
that of the Lex Regia and the Accession of Augustus. It is also the 
date of the Augusto- Egyptian calendar, according to Massey, " Gen, " 
II, 400. 



^RAS. 183 

B. C. 24, Southern India. — Beginning of the Grahar-parivritti 
90-year cycles, whose epsch is fixed in the 3078th year of Calijoga. 
The year is "solar." Pandits' "Chron.," p. xxix. See A. D. 1777. 
Other authorities say that the year is sidereal. 

B. C. 24, Syria. — According to some authors this year, instead 
of B. C. 28 or 25, marked the Accession and First Tribunitian year 
of Augustus, when the latter struck or permitted to be struck a coin 
in Syria stamped "Aug. Tr. Pot./' and the year "230," in an asra 
which was unrecognized by Cohen. (" Mon. et Med. Imp.," 2d ed., 
I, 164). When the 78 years are restored, which Augustus sunk from 
the calendar, this becomes the aera of Alexander, thus 24-I-2304-78 
=332 B. C. See B. C. 255. It corroborates the computation herein 
under B. C. 25. 

B. C. 21, Samos. — Indian embassy received at Samos by Augus- 
tus. Duff Rickmers. 

B. C. 18, Cilicia. — Aera of Anazarba, the metropolis of Cilicia, 
according to the Abbe Belley, cited in Barker's " Lares and Penates," 

P- 55, ^- _ 

B. C. IS, Rome, — Apotheosis of Augustus Caesar, as Lord of the 
World and Prince of Peace, and the official date of his sera, viz. , 
A. U. 738. Augustus was the Son of Maia, (Horace, lib. I, ode ii, 
line 43,) by the god Apollo. (Suet, in Aug. 94.) This year marks 
the permanent closure of the temple of Janus and an epoch of uni- 
versal peace. By assuming that the sera of Romulus Quirinus began 
738 years before, that it was that of his Apotheosis, and that his 
Apotheosis occurred when Romulus Quirinus was s;^ years old, the 
Augustan astrologers brought the beginning of the eighth cycle of 
no years, celebrated by the Ludi Sseculares, precisely to this year, 
and the Ludi were actually celebrated in accordance with that reck- 
oning. Thus, seven cycles=77o years, less 33=A. U. 737. This 
ended the seventh cycle. The eighth began with A. U. 738, or B. C. 
15. Suetonius, Aug. 100; Censorinus, De Die Natal e, XVII; "Mid- 
dle Ages Revisited," App. S. From this time forward the worship 
of Augustus as the Son of God became the official religion of Rome, 
Aera i, or Anno Domini, i, meant the first year of our Lord Augus- 
tus. All these dates were afterwards altered to the extent of 1 5 years. 
(For the word "sera," see B. C. 40.) From the chronological evi- 
dence furnished by coins, some of the most important institutes of 
the empire have been traced to this date. Thus, Lenormant, II, 218, 
shows that the re-organization of the monetary system, the division 
of the prerogative of coinage between Augustus and the Senate, and 



184 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the granting of coinage authority to the pro-consuls, all date from 
this year. The aera of Augustus can be shifted backward or forward 
to the extent of 30 years, at pleasure of the chronologist, by apply- 
ing the 15 years' interval, since made between the Christian and 
pagan Roman calendars, either to the last year before, or to the first 
year after, the interval, and by confusing the regnal year of Augustus 
with his Apotheosis. By these means the "aera "of Augustus has 
been variously thrown into A. D. 15, 14, B. C. 8, B. C. 10, B. C. 15, 
B. C. 28 and B. C. 30. "Middle Ages Revisited," ch. VIII, n, 18. 
It is evident that Livy, Pliny, Censorinus, and other ancient authors 
have been tampered with by thus shifting the Augustan sera; so that 
now every date is either a puzzle or a battle ground. A brief chro- 
nology of Augustus appears under A. D. 14. 

B. C. 10, Rome. — Shifted year of the Augustan tera employed by 
some chronologists. Censorinus shows that there were only 18 years' 
difference between the Julian sera (B. C. 46) and the Augustan regnal 
year in Rome. 

B. C. 8, Egypt. — Year of the Augustan Apotheosis in Egypt, 
where he was worshipped as Thurinus, or Thoth. Epoch, January 
I St. After the death of Augustus the epoch in Egypt was reckoned 
from the 29th August, a day with which the Sothic and Ptolemaic 
jeras both agreed. See above, years B. C. 1322 and 322. With re- 
gard to the transposition of February and August in the Egyptian 
calendar, consult Ovid and John of Nikios, ch. 64. For the name 
Thurinus, consult Suetonius. 

B. C. 7, Pontus. — Aera, probably Augustan, of Neo Claudipolis, 
recovered from coins, W. Wroth (R. S. Poole), Cat. Gr. Coins. See 
also B. C. 48 and A. D. 64. 

B. C. 7, Pontus. — Aera, probably Augustan, of Germanicopolis, 
recovered from coins. W. Wroth (R. S. Poole), Cat. Gr. Coins. See 
A. D. 64. 

B. C. 2, India. — The Cumarica-c'handra says: " After 3100 years 
of the Calijoga expire, king Saka, or Salivahana, will appear, to re- 
move wretchedness from the world." Salivahana was to be a Divine 
Child, born of a Virgin, and the son of Tacshaca, the carpenter. 
Col. Wilford's "King of Magadha, " in Asiat. Res., IX, 435, as cited 
by Rev. Wm. Hales, I, 197. This is Avithin three years of the death 
of the third Buddha, (nth Chrishna) by the Indian calendar, or of 
his birth by the Augustan. 

B. C. 2, Pontus. — Aeras of Amasia and Sebastopolis Heracleopis, 
recovered from coins. Renier, Rev. Arch., 1877; Ramsey, Jour. 



^RAS. 185 

Phil. II, 151 ; Wroth, (Poole,) Cat. Gr. Coins. (The aera of Amasia 
is printed as of B. C. 7, but corrected in Mr. Wroth's copy at the 
British Museum to B. C. 2. See A. D. 64. 

B. C. 1, Tyana.— Apollonius of Tyana was a youth of between 16 
and 20 years of age at the time of the death of Archelaus. Philos- 
tratus, in vita, I, 7, 12, 13. Archelaus died A. D. 17. Hence the 
birth of Apollonius was coincident with the Christian aera. Clinton, 
F. R., I, 8. This is also the opinion of Gibbon, I, 369. Hole says 
he was born B. C. 3 and died A. D. 98. Priaulx says that Apollonius 
visited India about A. D. 45. See the hebdomadal cycle in chapter 
VIII hereof. The mother of Apollonius was informed by a god who 
appeared to her, that "he himself should be born of her," and the 
divine Apollonius was the result. Doane, 128, citing Philostratus. 
Apollonius, while yet a mere youth, abjured the pleasures of life and 
became an ascetic. He lived upon the simple fruits of the soil, wore 
only linen clothing, went bare-footed, suffered his hair to grow long 
and slept on the bare ground. He observed the Pythagorean five 
years of self-imposed silence, and being filled with the Holy Spirit 
performed innumerable miracles, testifying to his divine origin and 
mission upon earth. But the universal worship of Augustus throughout 
the Roman world soon put an end to the pretensions not only of 
Apollonius, but also to those of the many other aspirants for divine 
honours who appeared at this period. 

A. D. 1, India and China. — Nativity or re-incarnation of the 
Indo-Chinese Buddhic les Chrishna, or Joss. Most of the following 
details are from Father Du Halde's "History of China." In A. D. 
51, Ming-ti, a legitimate sovereign of the Han dynasty, ascended 
the throne of China. In the fifteenth year of his reign, A. D. 65, 
there appeared to him a gigantic and godlike apparition, whose 
effulgence covered the entire earth, reminding him of the prediction 
of the prophetic Confucius, namely, that in this year the Holy One, 
would re-appear in the West. Upon awakening from his pious vision, 
Ming-ti immediately dispatched an embassy of venerable and learned 
men to India, where the Divine Incarnation was expected to appear. 
These magi, having arrived at the principal place in India celebrated 
for the worship of the Buddhic incarnation, (probably Gorakpore in 
Rajputana,) took part in the solemn rites of the religion founded by 
les Chrishna, familiarly known in China as Jess or Joss, and they 
adored His sacred image; after which, accompanied by a number of 
bonzes, or Buddhic priests of India, they returned to China. So 
soon as the report of their mission was conveyed to the emperor, he 



l86 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

issued a proclamation recognizing and authorizing the practice of 
Buddhism and the worship of Joss, as one of the three great religions 
of the state. The epoch of this incarnation is the first moon after 
the vernal equinox, which corresponds with our Easter. If, in order 
to make it correspond with the beginning of the Christian year, the 
fifteenth year of Ming-ti is reckoned from the ist of January, then 
the incarnation of the Indo-Chinese les Chrishna took place in A. D. 
64. But as this year is deduced by Father Du Halde from the years 
of the Chinese Jovian cycle, which are 63 years older than the 
Christian aera, 6$ years have to be deducted in order to reduce the 
year of the Indo-Chinese incarnation sera to the Christian reckoning. 
Hence the incarnation took place in A. D. i ; in other words, it oc- 
curred, or was believed to have occurred, 1899 years before the 
present year, 1900. This is evidently the same les Chrishna, who, 
according to Ramchandra Gosha, was previously incarnated B. C. 
724, (apotheosized B. C. 657,) and ascended to heaven B. C. 644. 
In such case the putative father of the Indo-Chinese les Crishna was 
of the royal race of les-saca, and he was the son or husband of Vasu- 
deva. les Chrishna's mission on earth was antagonism to the Phar- 
isaical religion of Brahm; the rejection of his ritual, sacrifices, 
puranas and institutions of caste and slavery : and the inculcation of 
justice, meekness, and faith in salvation. He aided with the multi- 
tude against the few and with the poor against the rich, claiming 
equal rights for all men who accepted the faith. According to Du 
Halde's Jovian chronology and the Buddhic years of the apotheosis 
and death. Joss was apotheosized in A. D. 130 and died A. D. 144; 
according to the Christian chronology Joss was apotheosized A. D, 
67 and died A. D. 81. 

A. D. 1, New Granada. — Approximate sera of Chinzapagua 
(Sent by God) which, according to the archaeologist Senor Gonzalo 
Ramos Ruiz, must be placed "at about the beginning of the Christ- 
ian sera." Chinzapagua was the Messiah of the Chibcha or Muiska 
Indians, a nation of more than a million souls, who inhabited the 
elevated region of Lake Guatavita, about eight leagues from Bogota 
in New Granada. Chinzapagua was born of the Sun and one of the 
daughters of an earthly king or zaque. Having ascended a hill to the 
eastward of her father's palace, the young virgin encountered the 
rays of the Sun and, in consequence, gave birth to an emerald, which, 
being wrapped in cotton and carried in her bosom during five days, 
at length developed into a beautiful Youth, who was univerally ac- 
knowledged as the Child of the Sun. After beginning a magnificent 



^RAS. 187 

temple to his heavenly father — of which, it is said, there are ruins at 
Tunja — this Messiah predicted the coming of a strange and cruel 
race, who would conquer the country. Subsequent to the making 
of this prediction he mysteriously disappeared in Suamoz, the pres- 
ent town of Sogamoso. "At the time of his disappearance he was 
an old man with a long white beard and of a different race from the 
Chibchas, whom he taught agriculture and how to spin and weave 
and to build cities." His footprints were to be seen in the solid 
rock in various parts of the country. One of his images (of gold) 
shows a large cross behind the head and ears; another one exhibits 
the Sacred Heart of the messianic myth. Seiior Paravey, who has 
compared the language of the Chibchas with the Sewa dialect of 
Japan, finds many philological analogies "with almost complete 
identity of their respective numeral characters." The Chibchas 
counted by scores, had a zodiac of ten signs, divided the year into 
twenty months and had a cycle of twenty years, "which was marked 
by the sacrifice of the Guesa. " The ten zodions were Ata, Boza, 
Mica, Muihica, Hisca, Ta, Cuhupcua, Suhuza, Aca and Ulchihica. 
These are supposed to be the names of Chinzapagua's disciples. The 
Guesa rite consisted in sacrificing a youth once in twenty years to 
the god of harvests. Cf. Century Magazine, October, 1891. 

A. D. 1, Rome. — The Christian sera, which, as now used, began 
at midnight between December 31, B, C. i, and January i, A. D. i. 
The year (not the day) of this sera is attributed to Dionysius Exiguus, 
a Scythian monk and astrologer, who, it is claimed, flourished during 
the reign of Justinian I., and computed this year from the paschal 
cycle which began B. C. 8 and ended A. D. 524, but who is much 
more likely to have flourished during the reign of Justinian II., A. D. 
705, because no evidence has been adduced to prove that the asra 
was employed before December i, A. D. 781, during the pontificate 
of Hadrian I. Bury's ' Later Roman Empire," II, 504. Cf. Brady, 
II, 343, who claims, though not upon equally convincing grounds, that 
the Christian sera was used so early as either 730, or 742, that is to 
say, during the reign of Pepin, A. D. 714-68. Cf. Scaliger, de 
Emend. Temp. The Christian sera is based on the Nativity of Jesus 
Christ at Bethlehem in Judea, which, according to the gospels, oc- 
curred during the procuratorship of Cyrenius, or Quirinus, and the 
reign of Herod, while the Roman tax levy of Augustus was in progress 
and at a period of the year when the flocks were feeding in the 
fields. Numerous attempts have been made to sychronise these 
dates, but with so little success that Scaliger regarded the determin- 



166 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

ation of the Nativity as beyond the skill of man. The Natal D^/ 
has been celebrated in various ages on Martinmas, Whitsuntide, 
Jesus Day, Palalia, Easter, the Vernal Equinox, Caesar's Day, the 
Feast of Tabernacles, and Brumalia, or Christmas; the last one now 
superceding all the others. Clem. Alex, ap., Putnam, Chron., 252; 
Massey, Gen., II, 399; Bower, vita Bon. VIII; Cassini, op. cit. ; 
Brady, II, 121, 341, 343; Matthew Paris; and Zonaras. Greswell, 
F. C, I, 536, says the Nativity occurred April 5th, but he does not 
say that it was ever celebrated on that day. In order to bring the 
Nativity within the reign of Herod, Archbishop Usher computed 
that it occurred in B. C. 4, that being the year in which Herod died. 
On the other hand, Waddington (Fastes Asiat., Paris, 1872,) proves 
that neither this year nor A, D. i, fell in the procuratorshio or gov- 
ernorship of Quirinus, which occurred eleven years earlier. The 
census appears to have been taken under Augustus in A. U. 723 and 
738. Mon. Ancyc, VIII; Cohen, Rom. Fasti. It is amost cer- 
tain that the tax levy was made in the same years. 

A. D. 8, Abyssinia. — So-called Anno Christo of Abyssinia. Prin- 
sep, *'Ind. Antiq. ," ed. 1858. Thisisreally the year of the apotheosis 
of Augustus in Egypt, B. C. 8, shifted to A. D. 8, as explained under 
B. C. 15. See also A. D. 14, 284 and 524; also cycles of 532 years 
in chap. VIII, herein. 

A. D. 14, Rome. — August 29th. Death and bodily Ascension 
to heaven of Augustus Divus Filius (Son of God), this having been 
his official title, which is stamped on his coins and is employed by 
Horace, Ovid, Virgil, Manilius, Suetonius, Pliny, Tacitus, Censorinus, 
and indeed all the writers of the Augustan period. The Ascension 
was sworn to as having been actually witnessed in effigy by Numeri- 
cus Atticus, a senator and noble of the Praetorian order. Suetonius, 
Aug., 100. 

Following are the principal dates relating to Augustus : 
6s B. C. — Nativity, 9 cal. October. 

40 B. C. — Advent. Virgil; Fourth Eclogue. Premature closure of 
temple of Janus. Title " Son of God " stamped on coins 
of this year. 
30 B. C. — January i. First regnal year in Egypt. Censorinus. 
28 B. C. — January I. First regnal year in Rome. Censorinus. "Mid- 
dle Ages Revisited " says B. C. 27; other authorities say 
B. C. 25, 24, etc. Augustus acknowledged by the Senate 
as the Sebastos, or Sacro-sanct. Mon. Ancyr, 
25 B. C. — Imperial accession. Second closure of Janus. 



^RAS. 189 

15 B. C. — Apotheosis in Rome. Ludi Saeculares. "Middle Ages 
Revisited" says B. C. 16. Third and permanent closure 
of Janus. 
8 B. C. — January i, afterwards August 29, Apotheosis in Egypt. 

" Reform " of the Egyptian calendar. 
8 A. D. — So-called Anno Christo of Abyssinia; really the apotheosis 
of Augustus in Egypt of B. C. 8, shifted to A. D. 8, as ex- 
explained under B. C. 15. Epoch, August 29. 
14 A. D. — August 29. Death and Ascension to heaven of Augustus. 
An ampler chronology appears in ' ' Middle Ages Revisited, " App. T. 
A. D. 14, Egypt. — Shifted aera of Augustus employed by some 
chronologists; really that of his death and Ascension. Cf. "Middle 
Ages Revisited," App. V. 

A. D. 35, Pontus, — Aera of Comana, recovered from coins. W. 
Wroth, op. cit. The sera is printed as of A. D. 38-39 but corrected 
to A. D. 35 in the author's copy at the Br. Museum. See A. D. 64. 
A. D. 40, Ceylon. — Nirvana of the Third Buddha. Noel. 
A. D. 40, Mauretania. — Moorish aera according to Stokvis, who, 
however, gives no explanation of it. Mauretania was divided by 
the Romans into two provinces, A. D. 42. Perhaps this date and 
the aera are connected. 

A. D. 64, Pontus. — Aeras of Cerasus (Cer-Iasus) Neo Caesaria, 
Trapesus and Zela, recovered from coins. W. Wroth, op. cit. 
Printed as of A. D. 6;^, but corrected in the author's copy at the 
Brit. Museum to A. D. 64. It requires but slight examination of 
the process by which this date has been computed to perceive that 
it belongs to the aera of Augustus. The usual type of the coins 
issued by the Greek colonies of the Euxine, before the period of 
Augustus, was the bust of Dionysius, encircled by a fillet of ivy, 
sometimes wearing the Phrygian cap of Liberty; the Cross, sur- 
mounted by a Ser-apis, or head of Bacchus (Koehne calls it the head 
of Osiris) ; the plain cross ; the p or so-called Christian but really 
Bacchic monogram; or else the svastica. Koehne, PI. VIII, figs. 
4, 7; XXI, 2; XXXVIII, 4. With the advent of Augustus these 
sacred emblems were swept away and replaced by the head of the 
new Messiah, whom Rome had accepted as the object of its religious 
devotion. Ovid's letters prove that even in Pontus the worship of 
Augustus was supreme. 

A. D. 65, China. — Aera of Fo, Fod, or Bod. App. Cyc, X, 264. 
See B. C. 1036. 



190 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

A. D. 65, India. — Beginning of the Jovian or 60-year cycles of 
the Jyotistava. The Pandits' " Chronology. " See A. D. 1025. 

A. D. 68, Rome. — Dionysian ?era of Rome. *' Upon the news 
of Nero's death (June 9, A. D. 68) many people, adopting for the 
emblem of their hopes the Phrygian cap of Liber Pater, ran widely 
through the streets, uttering revolutionary cries, and fomenting an 
excitement that ended by involving the Senate in their design and 
the issuance of an act proclaiming a republican government. Among 
the measures of the short-lived administration was the coinage of 
money designed to announce the restoration" . . . " A common 
type of these coins was a citizen clad in a toga with a cap of Liberty 
on his head and the legend Libert ati." Others had "Libert as 
Restituta," etc. Within a single year the ephemeral republic was 
succeeded by no less than four emperors, to wit, Galba, Otho, Vitel- 
lius and Vespasian. Del Mar's "Hist. Monetary Systems," chap, on 
"Rome." 

A. D. 74, Java. — Saka, deduced from the Roman year. The Pan- 
dits, p. xix, citing Sir Stamford Raffles and Crawfurd. See A. D. 78. 

A. D. 78, Madras, etc. — Shifted Saka of Salivahana, or Vicra- 
maditya, the real epoch of which was Easter Day, A. D. i. See also 
B. C. 78 and 63. This saka was shifted 78 years by being computed 
from the Roman dates that had previously been altered by Augustus 
Caesar. The migration of Indian families from one province to an- 
other and the resulting commingling of Indian customs and dates 
alluded to by Sankara Balkrishna Dikshit, in the " Indian Calendar," 
may have assisted the blunder. Unaware of such shifting, the Pan- 
dits date the Nativity of Salivahana from the Nauroz, or beginning, 
of the Hindu luni-solar year, Baisack, i, Calijoga 3179, the Roman 
equivalent of which is now March 14, A. D, 78. Stokvis repeats the 
same error. Other authorities make Baisack i, equal April 13. 
Sewell also fixes the Saka of Salivahana in A. D. 78; Wilford says 
A. D. 79; Cunningham also says A. D. 79; yet in dating Gupta in 
A. D. 167 (Saka, 241,) he fixes Salivahana in B. C. 75. The earliest 
actual inscription yet found with "Saka" is dated 725; the earliest 
with " Samvat " is dated ;^$, equal to B. C. 23, according to Rev Wm. 
Hales, I, 198. 

A. D. 78, India. — Re-establishment of the Indian Jovian cycles 
of 60 years, which Cunningham admits "must have been in use be- 
fore the Christian £era." This epoch was probably shifted like the 
Saka of Salivahana. The Indian Jovian cycles originally began on 
the vernal equinox. Thomas, in "Jainism," p. 15, says they began 



^RAS. 191 

iMarch 14. Sewell, in "South Indian Chronology," p. 10, says 
March 15. 

A. D. 79, Burma. — Prome sera established by King Samandri. 
This is evidently the same as the Saka of A. D. 78 and was doubt- 
less deduced in the same manner. 

A. D. 81, Balli. — Saka deduced from that of Java. See A. D. 74. 
Cf. The Pandits' "Chron.," p. xix. 

A. D. 121, Athens. — Christian equivalent of the Attic-Hadrianic 
sera, referred to in Corpus Inscrip. No. 281, as that of Hadrian, 
archon of Athens and sovereign-pontiff of Rome. In this inscrip- 
tion he is styled "Theos," or the living God. Cf. Phlegon, de 
Mirabilibus, XXV, 93; Corsini, Fasti Attici, IV, 173-5. Hadrian 
enlarged and beautified Athens, called the new portion after his own 
name, completed and dedicated the Olympian temple to Jupiter, 
which had been 560 years in course of construction, presided at the 
Dionysia, gave Athens a new Code of Laws and was recognised in 
the inscriptions as its Second Founder. Corp. Inscrip., 520. Cf. 
Soartianus, in vita; Scaliger, De Emend., etc.; Gruter, cclxxvi, 4. 
Basing his conjecture on certain remarks in Galen, Dr. Greswell, 
K. H., II, 155, thinks that this vear marked for Athens the adop- 
tion of a solar calendar, to supersede the Metonic luni-solar, and 
thattheNew Year day was changed from ist Hecat. , to istBoedrom. ; 
but whether this change took place in 121 or 136, or some other year, 
seems doubtful. The dated coins, "A. U. 874," of Hadrian, point 
to the date last named as the true one. 

A. D. 136, Egypt. — Appearance of Osiris, the Redeemer, in the 
form of Apis, the Bull. Life of Hadrian, by .^lius Spartianus. This 
is exactly one Divine Year (658 common years) from the Apotheosis 
of Darius Hystaspes, who ruled both in Persia and Egypt and was 
worshipped in the last-named country as the Creator. Perhaps this 
Apis miracle is connected with the Annus Magnus of Censorinus. 
See below, A. D. 138, Rome. 

A. D. 136, Judea. — ^ra of Barco-cheba. In 131 Hadrian re- 
built Jerusalem, gave it the name of ^lia Capitolina, erected in it a 
temple to Jupiter, placed-his own image in it and commanded it to 
be worshipped. The indignity offered by this ordinance, the near 
approach of the Brahminical Divine Year, the prediction of a solar 
eclipse and the exciting harangues of the Rabbis, raised up a national 
champion in the person of Barco-cheba, or Barkobab, who in A. D. 
134 proclaimed himself to be the Promised One and bade defiance to 
the Roman arms. In two years' time the Romans slew 580,000 Jews^^' 



p., 



192 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

including their ill-starred Saviour, and reduced Judea to a desert, in 
which condition it has remained substantially ever since. 

A. D. 138, Rome. — Accession and sera of Antoninus Pius, consu- 
late of Antoninus Pius and Brittius Praesena, when the i8th Thoth 
corresponded with 12 cal. August, whereas, a century later, it corre- 
sponded with 7 cal. July. This sera appears to have been called An- 
nus Magnus; but no explanation is given. Censorinus, Die Natale, 
ch. XXI. The reason is probably that the Brahminical Annus Mag- 
nus, or Divine Year, fell in A. D. 188; and that the alteration of the 
calendar, occasioned chiefly by the action of Augustus, resulted in a 
dislocation of many years between the Eastern and Western seras. 
See A. D. 78, A. D. 136, Egypt, and A. D. 187, Rome. 

A. D. 166, India. — Gupta sera, according to Stokvis. 

A. D. 167, India. — ^ra of Gupta. Cunningham. But see A. D. 
78, 206, 318 and 319. 

A. D. 187, Rome. — Brahminical Divine Year, Table A. Reign 
of Commodus. Dr. Greswell, F. C., I, 525, says that in this reign 
the calendar was "wantonly tampered with and deranged;" but fur- 
nishes no particulars. Commodus, who reigned 180-192, gave great 
encouragement to the worship of Isis-Osiris. 

A. D. 195, Persia. — Birth of Mani, or Manes, founder of the 
Manichaean religion and author of the "Shabarkan." Albiruni. 
Barkan, or Barkhan, is one of the names of Buddha; whilst the sera 
of Manes is Brahminical. Manes styled himself both Messiah and 
Paraclete, and was attended by Twelve Apostles. Herbert, ' 'Britannia 
after the Romans," II, 155. Manes received divine revelation in his 
13th year (mitsva), the 2nd of Ardishir, King of Kings. He was cru- 
elly put to death by Ormuz I., about A. D. 271. According to Albi- 
runi, if we reckon from the anno astronorum Babyloniae (B. C. 747), 
Manes was born A. D. 220, whilst if we reckon from the regnal 
period of Alexander the Great, Manes was born A. D. 206 and died 
A. D. 271 to 273. Here is a discreancy of 14 or 15 years. Some 
Manichseans still existed in the time of Albiruni, the nth century. 

A. D. 205, Persia. — ^ra of Ardishir ben Bebek, King of Kings 
and founder of the Sassanian dynasty. Albiruni says "from Alex- 
ander to Ardishir is 537 years." Title assumed, " Shah-in-shah." 

A. D. 206, India. — Aera of Gupta, A. D. 206-9, according to Dr. 
Biihler. But see A. D. 78, 167, 318 and 319. 

A. D. 211, Rome. — Beginning of the reign of Caracalla, who died 
in 217. Yet this monarch, according to Eckhel, (Doc. Num. Vet., 
II, 63, III,) issued coins in Macedonia with the head of Alexander 



^RAS. 



193 



the Great, radiated, stamped in an unknown sera with the Greek 
letters denoting the year 275. By the received chronology this date 
cannot be explained; but if allowance is made for the 15 or 16 years' 
alteration of the Augustan calendar, effected by the Italian Sacred 
College, the year was reckoned from the sera of Julius Csesar; thus 
B. C. 48 plus 16 plus 211=275. 

A. D. 220, Rome. — Establishment of sun-worship, or Mithraism, 
as the official religion of Rome, under Elagabalus. See " Middle 
Ages Revisited," Appendix R. See also B. C. 389 for dated coins 
of Elagabalus. 

A. D. 223, Persia. — Sassanian sera. Epoch: September 27. Stok- 
vis. Lenglet and others say A. D. 225. See 205. 

A. D. 260, Central India. — Chedi, Chesh, or Kalachuri samvat, 
or sera of Central India. Cunningham. It is fixed by Robert Sewell 
in A. D. 248 and called Chesh, or Chedi, its epoch being Aswin ist. 
"The Indian Calendar," Table III. Stokvis and Duff Rickmers 
say Calijoga 3350, or A. D. 249. This sera is now obsolete. 

A. D. 262, Ephesus. — Destruction of the temple of Diana in 
Ephesus by the Goths, Gallien being emperor of Rome. Townsend. 
When the ruins were excavated by J. T. Wood, 1865-70, the follow- 
ing inscription was found upon the peribolus wall : Augustus Csesar, 
Son of God, emperor, consul XII times, tribune XVIII times, pon- 
tifex maximus, restored the fane of Diana and repaired the fortified 
wall of the Augusteum. G. Asinio Gallo, pro-consul; Sextus Lar- 
tidio, legate. Middle Ages Revisited, App. T. 

A. D. 271, Persia. — Death and Ascension to heaven of Manes, 
the Messiah, the most noted of whose followers was Augustine of 
Hippo, fifth century. See A. D. 195. Clinton, F, R., I, 317, fixes 
the death of Manes in A. D. 278; Eusebius says A. D. 282. 

A. D. 279, Rome. — ^ra of the ordinance of Probus, permitting 
the cultivation of the vine in Champagne (Gaul), Germany and other 
northern provinces. Gibbon, I, 67, thinks that the vines of Bur- 
gundy may be as old as the age of the Antonines; the evidence upon 
which this opinion rests being that of Eumenius, in the fourth cen- 
tury. Dio. Sic. V, 2, said that Gaul did not produce wine; yet Pliny 
alludes to the culture of the vine in Gallia Narbonensis, Vienne, Spain 
and Egypt. Book III, Nat. Hist. It was the policy of Persia, and 
afterwards of Greece, Rome and Spain, to monopolize the culture of 
the vine in the Mother country, and to forbid or discourage it in the 
provinces. The date when this rule was relaxed or abrogated often 



194 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

marked the dawn of provincial independence and the rehabilitation 
of the popular cult of Dion)fsius. 

A. D. 284, Eastern Empire. — ^ra of Diocletian. In the Asi- 
atic provinces of the Roman Empire this ?era took for its epoch the 
New Year daj' of the Seleucidan ^ra and began on the autumnal 
equinox; in Egypt and Abyssinia it took for its epoqh the day of the 
Augustan Apotheosis, namely, Thoth ist, our August 29th. Stokvis 
and Cunningham. The latter says it was extensively used. SeeB. C. 
8 and A. D. 8 and 14. 

A. D. 31 2, Byzantium. — ^ra of Constantine. Autumnal equi- 
nox. Some chronologists assign to this year, or else to A. D. 313, 
the beginning of the Indictions; others hold that they were estab- 
lished long before the sera of Constantine. Scaliger and Lenglet be- 
gin the Indictions from the fera of Julius Cffisar. They were really 
of oriental and Pelasgian origin and were re-established by Augustus, 
B. C. 30. From the inscription on a coin of Constantine (No. 463), 
representing a section of a zodiac with "Rector totius orbis, "Cohen 
infers "a change of calendar " in this reign; but we have no details. 
'■''Description historiqiie dcs Monnaics f rappees sous V empire Remain" 
2nd ed., 1880. 

A. D. 318, Guzerat. — Gupta, or Balabhi, or Valabhi sera, accord- 
ing to the Pandits, op. cit., who derive it from an inscription found 
at Somnath, and who date it Vicramaditya, 375. Prof. Cowell says 
A. D. 31S-19; Dutt says A. D. 319; Dr. T. Block, Asiat. Soc. of 
London, Dec. 11, 1894, sa5^s A. D. 329. 

A. D. 319, Guzcrat. — Gupta, or Balabhi, or Valabhi sera, "241 
years after Saka, " commencing with the taonth of Kartika. Sewell. 
It was discontinued A. D. 802, when the city of Balabhi was de- 
stroyed. See A. D. 78. 

A. D. 348, Abyssinia. — ^^ra of Maherat (or grace). See A. D. 
1348. 

A. D. 377, Arabia. — Saracenic jera. In this (?) year (fifth con- 
sulate of Valens) Mavia, or Mania, queen of the Saracens, at the 
head of an army, invaded the Roman province of "Arabia," lying 
between the Red Sea and the Nile, demanding, among other things, 
the liberation of Moses, a Saracenic priest, who had been condemned 
by the Romans to the Bisharee mines, and who, though a worker of 
miracles, was unable to effect his own release. After Mavia had de- 
feated the Roman army, "an occurrence still held in remembrance 
among the people of the country and celebrated in songs by the 
Saracens," (Sozomen,) the venerated Moses was liberated. In A. D. 



.+:kas. 



^95 



379, the year following Valens' death, Mavia sent a contingent of 
Saracens to assist the empress Dominica in her defence of Constan- 
tinople against the Goths. Confused accounts of these transactions, 
mingled with circumstances impossible of belief, appear in the pages 
of Sozomen and Socrates. The sera of Mavia extends 320-92. She 
is mentioned by Rufinus, who died in 410. Mania, Mavia, Maria, 
Mary, Msera, Maia and Maha are regarded as the same by Higgins, 
Anacal., I, 308, and La Loubere, III, 136. 

A. D, B89, Rome. — First triumph of Theodosius. Supposed offi- 
cial change of the Roman state religion. Gibbon, ch. XXVIII. 

A. D. 393, Rome. — Re-consecration of Roman temples. Lanci- 
ani's "Pagan and Christian Rome," p. 39. The usurper Eugenius 
re-consecrates them to the ancient state religion. " Ancient Brit- 
ain, '• chap. VI. The date seems astrological. After deducting the 
6^ years' alteration of the calendar, it remains one-half of 658 years, 
or of a Divine Year. 

A. D. 394, Rome. — Second triumph of Theodosius; death of 
Eugenius; re-consecration of the temples; final official adoption of 
the new religion. Zosimus, (Vatican ms.) Mendelssohn, (1887), 
fixes the history of Zosimus in A. D. 450-501. 

A. D. 397, Gaul. — ^ra formerly used in Gaul and Britain; epoch, 
November 18, since changed to November 11, and now called Mar- 
tinmas. This festival, once known as Brumalia, was celebrated in 
Scythia and Greece in very remote times as the natal day of Diony- 
sius. It constituted one of the four great Dionysian holidays and 
was observed for ten, afterwards seven, days, before and after No- 
vember i8th, an interval once known as the Halcyon Days and sub- 
sequently as St. Martin's Summer. After the decline of emperor- 
worship, it was revived in Rome, from whence it probably made its 
way, together with the other Dionysian festivals, to Gaul, some time 
during the fourth century. The date of November 18, 397, possibly 
marks the revival of the Dionysian cult in Gaul. The medieval 
monks, to hide this fact, invented St. Martin, who, as they allege, 
was born at Sabaric, in Pannonia, in 316, became bishop of Tours 
in 375, and died on November 18, 397, in whose memory they pre- 
tended that this day was kept. The festal ceremonies which are 
still observed at Martinmas by the people of Gaul, Britain and Scot- 
land, and which closely resemble those of the ancient Greeks, do not 
support this theory. Cf. Picot, "Chron. "; L. De Mas Latrie, 
"Chron."; Bell's Pantheon, voc. "Halcyon Days"; Brady, op. cit. 



196 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

II, 274; Potter, I, 443; Putnam, 252; Townsend, voc. "Martinmas"; 
and Chapter I, hereof. 

A. D. 406, Mecklenburg. — Death of the Gothic leader Rada- 
Gaisus, who had proclaimed himself an incarnation of the Deity and 
who, as such, was worshipped or venerated by the Obotrites of 
Mecklenburg. The last incarnation of Woden was fixed in a year 
equal to B. C. 90. According to the Dionysian astrology this incarna- 
tion was due to recur after an interval of 532 years; that is to say, 
in A. D. 442. However, it is by no means certain that the Goths 
of the Baltic employed a Dionysian divine year. In 406 Rada-Gaisus 
invaded Italy with a large force, expecting to capture Rome and in- 
augurate a new Empire; but in this enterprise he failed. He was 
defeated before Florence and barbarously put to death by Stilicho. 
Mascou, Hist. Goth. Gibbon, who follows De Guignes, ascribes the 
Gothic invasion of Italy to the Hunnish invasion of Tartary and the 
latter to the displacement of population in China; but the chronology 
of the period does not support this theory. See A. D. 421. 

A. D. 410, Rome. — Death of the Gothic leader Alaric, who set 
himself up for an incarnation of the Deity. He was born about A. D. 
375. In 397 he ravaged the whole of Greece, and although checked 
by Stilicho, his actions were approved, or condoned, through the 
weakness of Arcadius, who appointed him Master-general of the 
provinces he had desolated. Alaric besieged, captured and ransomed 
Rome in 410 and afterwards marched into Apulia, where he died the 
same year. He was buried in the channel of the river Busentinus, 
near Cosentia. 

A. D. 412, Arabia. — Year of Treason, which, according to Al- 
biruni, was no years before the "Year of the Elephants," which 
nevertheless is fixed herein at A. D. 532, q. v. 

A. D. 421, Bactria. — First regnal year of Baharam Gur, (Gur 
meaning Holy, or Saint), King of the lesha, (these people were so 
named by Sung-yun, A. D. 520), or the White Huns, (so named by 
Col. Francis Wilford, in Asiat. Res., IX, 206), or the Indo-Scythians, 
(so named in Duff Rickmers " Chron. of India," sub anno, 460). 
Their rule extended from the borders of Persia to the Punjab. The 
date is from Wilford, who deduces it from the Augustan year of the 
Calijoga. It would therefore, together with the dates derived from 
it, differ 15 years from the Christian dates. In A. D. 376 (Christian 
date) the Huns of the Caspian drove the Scythians back from Pan- 
nonia into Thrace (Sozomen) ; about 420 the lesha are persecuted 
and driven from Merv by Varanes, or Baharam V., the Sassanian k. 



^RAS. 197 

of Persia; 430, the lesha are attacked by Kitolo of Peshawar; 434, 
accession of Attila; 446, Attila's treaty with Theodosius; 448, Pris- 
ons, who was born in Attila's capital of leshelburg, now Buda-Pesth, 
learned this year of the conquest of Bactria by the White Huns, 
The sera of Vicramaditya, a son of Baharam Gur, is 20 years after 
the first regnal year of his father, or A. D. 441 (Wilford). In A. D. 
458 (deduced from an oriental date) Balkh was the metropolis of 
this people. It is presumed that the coins (which are still extant), 
struck by their king Toroman, near the beginning of the fifth century, 
stamped "52" in an unknown sera, refer to the advent of this 
Vicramaditya. Duff Rickmers begins Toroman's reign in 460 and 
continues it to 510. It is more likely to have commenced in 441 + 
52 = 493 and to have lasted until 510. Toroman erected a templeat 
Mooltan in the Punjab, which is said to have been dedicated to the 
Sun. In 600 the lesha were peaceably settled in this portion of In- 
dia. Wilford, op. cit. ; Cunningham, in " Numis. Chron.," 1894, 
and "Anc. Geog. India," pt. I; Specht, "Asie Central"; Rawlin- 
son, ''Seventh Monarchy." See A. D. 441. 

A. D. 422, Arabia, — "Year of Treason," 520 years after the 
death of Kab ben Luayy. Albiruni. Kab ben Luayy's sera roughly 
synchronises with that of Salivahana. 

A. D. 441, Bactria. — ^ra of the ninth one of the various Vic- 
ramadityas discovered by Col. Wilford in the Indian annals. This 
Vicramaditya was the putative son of Baharam Gur, k. of the White 
Huns. From his sera, which was Calijoga 3543, to the Hegira, the 
Indians reckon 196 years; yet according to the Christian dates 
there is an interval between them of only 181 years; a discrepancy 
of 15 years. Col. Francis Wilford, in Asiat. Res. IX, 302. 

A. D. 444, Rome. — Restoration of the Ischenian quinquenalles, 
or quinquennial games, by Theodosius II. Lenglet; Picot II, 279; 
Lempriere. 

A. D. 493, Rome. — Theoretical Gothic period in Italy. It began 
after the close of a Dionysian paschal period of 532 years from the 
Advent of Divus Augustus, B. C. 40, coinciding with the first year 
of Theodoric, who reigned just 33 years, A. D. 493-525. All these 
features are astrological , This Gothic sera was followed by a Gothico, 
or Lombardo-Byzantine period, 553-752, when Ravenna was taken by 
Pepin; the imperial exarch retired to Byzantium; and the temporal 
kingdom of the Italian popes was founded. The Roman coins and 
marbles of this period, 493-525, indicate the prevalence of the Ische- 



198 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

nian or else Dionysian cult in Rome down to near the beginning of 
the temporal power. 

A. D. 524, Rome. — Year when it is pretended that the Canon of 
Dionysius Exiguus was constructed. Greswell, F. C. Intro., 192, 
reluctantly admits that this canon might not be earlier than "the 
end of the seventh century." It really belongs to a period later 
than the Restoration of Justinian II. The year A. D. 524 completes 
one Dionysian divine year commencing with the Egyptian apotheo- 
sis of Divus Augustus, B. C. S. It is therefore astrological, and as 
such is open to the suspicion of having been connected with the 
name of Dionysius Exiguus in after times and for theoretical pur- 
poses. Bury says that the Christian asra was not used anywhere un- 
til 781, q. v. 

A. D. 530, Byzantium (Constantinople). — "An embassy, 
said to be Indian, bringing gifts to the Emperor Justinian, reaches 
Constantinople." Priaulx, " Ind. Emb. to Rome," 126; Duff Rick- 
mers. As this event was of an extraordinary character its date may 
be conjectured not to have been wholly unconnected with the Dio- 
nysian cycle and expected re-incarnation of Ourgouti Tirounal, or 
Augustus Quichena. 

A. D. 531, Persia. — -.^ra of Meshdak, the Messiah of God on 
earth, his advent coinciding with the last year of Kobad ben Feroz, 
the shah-in-shah of Persia. Albiruni. The advent of Meshdak 
(sometimes Messdak, Machdak, Mashdak, or Mazdac), occurred one 
Dionysian cycle after the Apotheosis of Augustus, when, according 
to a belief long entertained throughout the Roman world, that divin- 
ity would again visit the earth to restore it to peace and happiness. 
Meshdak taught a community of wives and property. He was exe- 
cuted this year by Chosroes. Eraser's "Persia," p. 132. 

A. D. 532, Armenia. — ^'Era Armeniacum Augustorum, the com- 
pletion of which was one Dionysian cycle after the Apotheosis of 
Augustus, when this Messiah was confidently expected to re-visit the 
earth. The new cycle was to begin Navasardi ist=August 11, which 
is the Augustan ascension-day, as shifted by an equable calendar 
that continued in use down to very recent years. The head of the 
calendar belonging to this cycle was January i. The Christian Ar- 
menian £era was invented in the 13th century and attributed to A. D. 
552, q. V. 

A. D. 532, Arabia. — Augustan tera of Arabia, exactly one Dion- 
ysian cycle from the Apotheosis of Augustus, son of God and Lord 
of the World. In order to conceal the origin of a cycle whose long 



^RAS. 199 

continued use and significance they couM not at once suppress, the 
pious Mahometans of the following century entitled this aera the 
"Year of the Elephants, " and alleged that it commemorated the defeat 
of the Abyssinians and their elephants by the tribe of Koreish, under 
Abraha; events whose inconsequential character mark the fictitious 
character of the commemoration. Albiruni fixes this victory of the 
Koreish no years (this is equal to one Ludi Saeculares) after the 
"Year of Treason," and 90 years before the Hegira. Gibbon, V, 
198, assigns the "defeat of the Abyssinians," which is evidently the 
same event, to the year of Mahomet's birth. This he fixes in A. D. 
569. It will be observed that there is no such uncertainty about the 
sera as there is about the occurrence assigned for its observance. 
But the mollahs probably did the best they could with the obnoxious 
out-growths of the monstrous and degrading religion of emperor wor- 
ship which they inherited from Rome. 

A. D. 548, India. — Magi San, 548-9, which is 45 years before the 
Bengali San. Sewell. 

A. D. 548, Scylhia. — Conjectural year assigned by Genghis Khan 
to the incarnation of Budantsar, who was miraculously conceived of 
a Mongol widow and from whom he claimed descent, through Yesu- 
kai, or lesu-chri. See A. D. 1206. 

A. D. 552, Armenia. — .^ra Haicana, or so-called Christian asra 
of Armenia, invented probably in the 13th century and dated back 
to July 9, 552. Stokvis says July 7. This year is one Dionysian 
cycle from the Apotheosis of Augustus, while the epoch is that of 
the Greek Olympiads. The sera is attributed by Cardinal Pagi, (a 
Roman papal secretary,) to the mission of Julian of Halicarnassus 
and the schism it wrought in the Armenian religion; but this pious 
legend of the church cannot be reconciled with the light which ar- 
chaeology and numismatics have thrown upon the history of religion 
in Armenia. 

A. D. 552, Japan. — In this year, according to Klaproth, the re- 
ligion of Buddha was introduced into Japan from Corea. But see 
B. C. 712 and 660. 

A. D. 567, Byzantium (Constantinople). — Greek cycle of the 
re-incarnation of les Chrishna. Greek zodion of Aquarius, the Water- 
man. This cycle may have facilitated the advent of Meshdack, Ma- 
homet, Musailima, etc. 

A. D. 669, Mecca. — November loth. (Martinmas.) Birth of Ma- 
homet, according to Gibbon. The Benedictines, also Hole and 
Townsend, fix this event in 570; while the Penny Encyp. prefers 5 71. 



200 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Following Townsend, who follows the Benedictine monks in the re- 
maining dates, Mahomet begins to preach in 609; is Summoned by 
the angel Gabriel, 610; is opposed by the Koreishites, 613; flies to 
Medina (Hegira), 622; of which place he is appointed Prince; de- 
feats the Koreishites, 623-25; captures Mecca, 630; dies at Medina, 
Monday, June 8, 632, after having founded one of the greatest em- 
pires of the world. See A. D. 610 and 622. 

A. D. 570, Mysore. — Tippoo Saib, (A, D. 1783-99,) besides em- 
ploying the Hindu ^ra of the Calijoga, (See B. C. 3102,) established 
an sera dating not from the Flight, but from the Birth of Mahomet, 
and at the same time re-introduced the 60-year Jovian cycles. These 
regulations did not survive him. He died in 1799, at the age of 52, 
They are partly explained in Kirkpatrick's " Select Letters of Tip- 
poo Sultan." For birth of Mahomet, see A. D. 569. 

A. D. 583, India. — Shifted year of the Hegira. The Pandits, xix. 

A. D. 591, Southern India. — Fasali, or Fuslee sera of Southern 
India. Sewell. It was established in A. D. 1638. The Pandits. 

A. D. 592, Northern India. — Fasali sera of Northern India. 
Sewell. About this period, A. D. 592, Amsuvarman of Nepal ruled 
in the name of Siva-deva. Hiuen Tsing, in Beale, II, 81 n. This 
sera was established by Akbar in A. D. 1556. The Pandits. 

A. D. 592, Upper India. — Fasali sera of Akbar. " This and the 
Sumbat years are both current in the provinces of Bahar, Benares 
and the ceded and conquered provinces." The government revenue 
is collected by the Fasali, or Fuslee, (or harvest, or revenue,) year 
and the common affairs of life are reckoned by it. The Sumbat year 
is chiefly used by the native merchants and bankers. " The Fuslee 
(sometimes Fussily), or harvest, and the Vilayuty, or country year, 
1 197, began in September, 1789; the Bengal year 1197, in April, 
1790." (This seems to be the year used by Sonnerat and Noel.) 
" These seras appear to have been introduced in the reign of Akbar, 
who ascended the throne of Delhi on Rub-us-sanee 2nd, A. H. 963, 
or February 14, A. D. 1556." (For a different translation of these 
dates, see A. D. 1556.) "A solar year for financial and civil transac- 
tions was then engrafted on the current lunar year of the Hegira, or 
subsequently adjusted to the first year of Akbar's reign. But the 
Fuslee year 963 having expired in September, 1556, the commence- 
ment of it must be reckoned back to September, 1555, whereas the 
Bengal year 963 did not commence till April, 1556, and extended to 
April, 1557. The difference between the Fuslee and Christian seras 
is 592 years from the commencement of the Fuslee year, Aswin ist, 



/ERAS. 20I 

in September, to the end of December, and 593 years from January, 
to the Fuslee year's termination on Bhadoon 30, corresponding with 
a variable date in September. Thus, Aswin i, 1197, plus 592=Sep- 
tember 5, 1789, when the Fuslee year 1197 began, and Bhadoon 30, 
1 197 plus 593=September 23, 1790, when it ended. The Vilayuty, 
or Amli year, current in Orissa, differs from the Fuslee in a few days 
only, by adopting the Bengal method of reckoning the months. The 
Christian exceeds the Bengal sera 593 years from April 11 to the end 
of December, and 594 years from January to April 10. Thus, lesaac 
or Bysaack i, the commencement of the Bengal year 1197, plus 593 
=April II, 1790, and its termination, Cheyt or Chittere, 31, 1197, 
plus 594=April 10, 1791. This furnishes an easy (?) rule for ascer- 
taining the corresponding years of the Fuslee, Vilayuty, Bengal and 
Christian seras respectively." Harrington's "Analysis," vol. II, p. 
176 and 5th Report, p. 38. 

Ac D. 592, Bengal and Orissa. — Vilayuty San, A. D. 592-3. 
The Amli San of Girisa-Chandra's " Chron. Tables" (Pref., xvi) dif- 
fers from the Vilayuty San only in details. Sewell. 

A. D. 593, Bengal. — Bengali San, or Meshadi (Messianic) sera. 
Sewell, in "Indian Cal.," p. 42, says A. D. 593-4. 

A. D. 593, Orissa. — Amli San, commences from the birth of In- 
dradryumna, or 12th day of the light half of Bhadra. Each month 
commences when the Sun enters a sign of the zodiac. It is used in 
the law courts of Orissa and in business transactions. The Pandits. 

A. D. 593, Orissa. — Vilayuty, or Vilaity San, commences Aswin 
I. Used in collecting government revenue in Orissa. In the Bengal 
Presidency it is customary to insert all of the following seras at the 
head of every regulation enacted by the government: i. The Ben- 
gali San; 2, the Vilayuty or Amli year of Orissa; 3, the Fuslee year 
of the Upper Provinces; 4, the Fuslee year of the Peninsular. The 
Pandits. 

A. D. 600, India. — JEra. of Mahratta Sur-San. Sewell says 599- 
600. 

A. D. 603, India. — Harsha sera. Sewell. Duff Rickmers says 
October 22nd, 606. See A. D. 607. 

A. D. 607, India. — Sri-Harsha sera of Kanauj. Epoch : March 
3rd. Cunningham. See A. D. 622. 

A. D. 609, Arabia. — Advent of the impostor Musailima, who pre- 
tended that he was the Paraclete. Albiruni. 

A. D. 610, Arabia. — Year of the Summons. Mahomet is sum- 
moned on the 27th of Ramadan by the Angel Gabriel, to redeem the 



202 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

evangelical promise of the Paraclete. This year is exactly one Di- 
vine Year, or one astrological incarnation cycle, (658 years,) from 
the deification and sera of Julius Caesar. It is evident that this aera 
was intended to replace the Julian (Caesarian) which was in use in 
the Greek provinces, whilst the year of the Hegira, an afterthought 
of Omar, was invented to supplant that of lesdigerd, used in the 
Persian provinces, which fell under the sway of the ]\Ioslems. INIa- 
homet's birth was also made to tall)' with the re-incarnation of les 
Chrishna. His miracles, his twelve apostles and the other astrologi- 
cal features of his religion, are noticed by Gibbon, ch. I ; Boulain- 
villiers, book III; and Higgins, in the " Anacalypsis. " 

A. D. 622, Tibet. — Srong Tsau Sgampo, Grand Lama, an " in- 
carnation " of the deity. L. A. Waddell, "Buddhism of Tibet," 
1895, places his rera in 641 ; Appleton's Cyc, X, 261, and Duff Rick- 
mers say 632. 

A. D. 622, Tibet. — *^ra of the Lama Teshi-lunpo, an aera em- 
ployed within the last two centuries. The Pandits' " Chron. " 

A. D. 622, Tibet. — ^^ra of Mekha-gya-tsho, a symbolical name 
for the number 403, such being the mode of reckoning in Tibetan 
medii-eval works. It indicates the employment in Tibet of the He- 
gira, or the rera of Mekha, or Mecca. "The Tibetan writers, in- 
deed, ascribe the destruction of the Buddhist religion in the North 
to the Mahometans. " If 403 be deducted from the Tibeto-Jovian 
sera of A. D. 1025, the quotient is 622, the year of the Hegira. The 
The Pandits' "Chron." 

A. D. 622, India. — Harsha Kala, orHarshavardhana, of Kanouj, 
or Kanauj. A. D. 606-48. This aera "varies, in different authorities, 
from 603 to 635. Calcutta Review, April, 1891. Sewell says 603 
and 606-7; Cunningham says 607. 

A. D. 622, Persia. — lesdigerdllL, deified 26 June, (29 August), 
A. D. 632. (Prinsep.) By sinking ten years of the calendar, this 
has been altered to 622. (See Anno Mundi B. C. 5502). The altera- 
tion from June to August made the deification of lesdigerd agree 
with the day of the Augustan asra in Egypt. Woolhouse says 16 
June, 632. Albiruni says "from Alexander to lesdigerd's accession 
is 944 years." This would make the latter A. D. 617, thus 944 less 
327 = 617. 

A. D. 622, Arabia. — Hegira, or the Flight, from Mecca to Me- 
dina, or jera of Mahomet, Friday, July 16. This day is said to have 
been instituted by Omar; but Albiruni says the Moslem calendar was 
reformed by the caliph AI Mutadid, tenth century. This year, 622,. 



^RAS. 203 

is that of lesdigerd, (see Persia, A. D. 632 and 622), while the day- 
is that of the Greek Olympiads. The year is astrological, while the 
day is ecclesiastical. (See Elis, B. C. 12 19). The Arabian astron- 
omers date the Hegira from Thursday, Moharran ist, (July 15,) 622. 
This difference of one day may be due to the fact that the Moslem 
mollahs begin the day at sunset, whilst the astronomers, with more 
precision, begin it at noon. The Moslem year is substantially lunar. 
The civil months are adjusted by a cycle of approximately 30 years, 
19 of which consist of 354 and 11 of 355 days, in all 10,631 days, or 
29 years and 39 days, Julian. The 12 months of the Moslem calen- 
dar contain alternately 29 and 30 days. The last month of the inter- 
calary years has 30 days. The intercalated years are the 2nd, 5th, 
7th, loth, 13th, i6th, i8th, 2ist, 24th, 26th, and 29th of the cycle. The 
month commences from the evening on which the New Moon is seen; 
hence its duration depends on the weather and it may differ in places 
not far apart. (This was formerly the case also with the Jewish lu- 
nar calendar. Lyons, 14.) But in the Moslem calendar no month 
may contain less than 29 nor more than 30 days. In legal deeds 
dated by the Hegira, the day of the week should be inserted. The 
Pandits *'Chron." 

A. D. 632, Persia. — ^raof lesdigerd; epoch, June 16, Stokvis. 
See A. D. 622. 

A. D. 634, Arabia. — The Koran was published by Abubeker in 
A. D. 634 and revised by Othman in 652 and by other princes at 
subsequent dates. See A, D. 622 and cf. Blackie's Pop. Encyc, art. 
"Literature." The English translation by Sale is said to be merely 
an adaptation of Maracci's Italian translation which was made under 
the direction of the Italian papal censorship. It is greatly perverted, 
a fact which has in its turn influenced other translations. The Mos- 
lem World, 1893, 

A. D. 637, Siam and Burma. — Siamese and Burmese incarna- 
tion sera. Marsden, op. cit. , calls it ' ' the astronomical year " and says 
the sera was deduced from a letter written A. D. 1769, by the king 
of Pegu to the French commander at Pondicherry, dated " 12th of 
the month Kchong, year 1132." Robertson, "India"; Cunningham, 
"Indian ^ras;" and Stokvis, "Chronology," fix this sera at Satur- 
day, March 21st, A. D. 638, for India and Burma. It is mentioned 
by Cassini and by Higgins, in his " Anacal." I, 168. Sewell calls it 
the sera of the Magi and fixes it at A. D. 638. The Pandits call it 
the Muggee San and fix its epoch in A. D. 639. The days and months 
in this sera correspond exactly with those in the Bengalee San of 



•> . A s> 



204 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

A. D. 593-4, the difference between them being 45 years. The Pan- 
dits "Chron. " Duff Rickmers calls this the Arakan sera and fixes 
it in 639. "Joannes Moses, collector of the land tax for the prov- 
ince of Pegu, said that whenever the king thought the years of the 
sera too many, he changed it." The Peguan sera was derived from 
the astronomers of Siam who fixed it in 638. Francis Buchanan, 
M. D., in "Asiatic Researches," VI, 171. 

A. D. 638, Pegu. — -^ra mentioned by Dr. Buchanan. See 637 
Siam and Burma. 

A. D. 639, Ceylon and Ava. — Pouppa-Azan San of Ceylon. 
Established by Pouppa-chan-ra-han. Bishop Paul A. Bigandet. Year 
begins with new moon of solar month, Chittere. The division of 
months is the same as in the luni-solar system of India. The Pandits. 

A. D. 657, Siam. — The re-incarnation of Salivahana, due in the 
Orient A. D. 579, was (owing to 6^ years difference between the 
Eastern and Western astrological calendars), not due until A. D. 642 
in the Occident. (Table B). Between these two dates fell the In. 
carnation of Salivahana marked by the zodiacal sign of the Water- 
man, the Summons of Mahomet, the Hegira, the Incarnation of 
Srong Tsau Sgampo, Kanouj, and lesdigerd, and finally the Siamese 
incarnation, all of which, except that of Salivahana, evidently re- 
lated to actual historical personages. This — among other rea- 
sons — accounts for their not having taken place in the proper 
astrological year, according to the Western, or Roman, calendar. 
In this interval, A. D. 579-642, were also completed the Twelve 
Ages of Etruria, according to Varro. Thus 12x110 (the period of 
the Ludi S8eculares)^i32o, less 738, (the year of Romulus by the 
Augustan calendar used by Varro), equals 582. " Middle Ages Re- 
visited," App. S. 

A. D. 700, Europe. — Approximate sera of Gothic architecture in 
Europe. 

A. D. 700, Mexico. — Toltec sera, according to Greswell, F. C, I, 
361. The astrologically correct date is A. D. 722, q. v. 

A. D. 705, Constantinople. — Restoration of Justinian II. to 
the throne of the Roman Empire, assisted by the Goths, an event 
marked by the issuance of a gold solidus, stamped with the earliest 
valid effigy of Jesus Christ known to exist. The legend is "d, N, 
Ihs. Chs. Rex Regnantivm." The requirement of Justinian, that 
his tribute should be paid in coins of the imperial stamp, had caused 
the war with Abd-el-Melik and led to the complete independence 
(rather an extension) of the Arabian Empire, and the coinage of 



iERAS. 205 

pieces with monotheistic legends, to which this coin was a reply. 
Theophanes; Cedrenus; Zonaras; "Hist, of Monetary Systems," 
p, 171. Brady, "Clavis Calendaria," I, 403, says that the earliest 
effigy of Jesus Christ is of the year 707 ; but in this respect the 
learned author appears to be mistaken to the extent of two years. 

A, D. 712, Spain. — Conquest of Spain by Tarik, a lieutenant of 
Mousa-ben-Nosier, the commander of the Moslem forces at Ceuta. 
After Tarik had defeated the army of the Gothic king Roderic, A. D. 
709, he advanced to Toledo and in a short space of time nearly the 
whole of Spain fell beneath his arms. "The fame of this extraor- 
dinary exploit aroused the jealousy of Mousa, who, crossing from 
Africa, hastened to complete the conquest of Spain and share the 
vast spoil of Tarik. By A. H. 94 (A. D. 712), the conquest was 
completed and Mousa, like Cortes at a later period, found himself 
master of an empire greater and richer than that of the caliph, his 
master." "Hist. Mon. Sys.," ch. IX. "When Mousa arrived in 
Andalusia, one of the bishops of that country said to him, 'Oh, 
Mousa! We find thee mentioned in one of the prophets, who pre- 
dicted an illustrious Prince, answering exactly to thy description, 
who is to enter this country'" (and conquer it, by the will of God). 
Ibn Dhahan, in Al-Makkari, Appendix Ixxvii. Jaddus, the high- 
priest of Jerusalem, had the same welcome for Alexander and the 
Aztec priests in Mexico the same for Cortes: they said he was the 
Expected One. 

A. D. 722, Mexico. — Conjectural sera of Quetzalcoatl, orBacab, 
or Bacob, the Messiah, Son of God (lesona), begot by the Holy 
Spirit (Echiah), upon the earthly virgin Sochiquetzal. Quetzalcoatl 
was foretold by prophets ; the place of his birth was indicated by the 
Morning Star; he was born at Tula, on the winter solstice; to the 
accompaniment of flowers and music; he was recognised as the Mes- 
siah by seers and astrologers; his head was rayed; his complexion 
was black; his hair was woolly ; he performed numerous miracles; 
he fasted 40 days; he was tempted by the Evil One; he resisted, was 
persecuted and eventually crucified on the vernal equinox, by order 
of the tyrant Eupaco; on which occasion the sun was eclipsed. He 
descended into hell to judge the dead; was absent three days and 
nights; he rose again; and finally ascended bodily to heaven. He 
had 12 disciples; his sacraments were the communion, eucharistand 
baptism; his emblematic plant, the maguey; his epigraphic symbols 
were the 1"and svastica; and the sign of his second coming was the 
White Horse. More curious than any of the above details, all of 



2o6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

which according to Doane will be found in Lord Kingsborough, VI, 
164, 180, and in Humboldt, is the fact that while the horse was un- 
known in any portion of America, yet the Second Advent of Quet- 
zalcoatl was depicted in the Mexican picture-chronicles with a figure 
of what the astonished Spaniards had no difficulty in recognising as 
a White Horse. Quetzalcoatl's other name of Bacob suggests the 
Buddhic Barcan and Hebrew Bacocheba. See A. D. 700. 

A. D. 762, Rome. — Temporal kingdom of the Pope founded. See 
Rome, A. D. 493 and A. D. 1870. 

A. D. 771, Baghdad. — An embassy from Sindh to the caliph Al- 
Mansur is " supposed to have given the Arabs their first knowledge 
of Hindu astronomy. " Duff Rickmers, 68. 

A. D. 781, Rome. — In this year, ist December, Pope Hadrian 
" ceased to use the years of the Emperors as dates and adopted the 
formula, ' Under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and 
Redeemer!'" Bury, " Later Rom. Emp.," II, 504, This date con- 
troverts the reputed adoption of the dates ascribed to Dionysius Ex- 
iguus. Cf. also Massey, "Genesis." I, 443. 

A. D. 786, Arabia. — Death of Almukanna, who impiously pre- 
tended to be the Son of God, A. H., 169. Albiruni, p. 188, says that 
this impostor affected to be the Creator himself. 

A. D. 790, Tibet. — Fisher, "Hist. Siberia," assigns this year 
for the sera of Dalai-Lamaism, which he supposes to be a mixture of 
Buddhism and Nestorianism. Malte-Brun, II, 104. But Fisher is 
mistaken, both as to date and inference. Dalai-Lamaism is much 
order than Nestorianism. Its sources are Shamaism and Buddhism. 
Lama is the name of the sea-god of the Tibetan lakes Kara, Dsida, 
Eldzighen, Buka, Teugri, etc., which in ancient times were proba- 
bly united. The same sea-god was named by the Hindus, Varuna; 
by the Babylonians, Cannes; and by the Tarentines, Greeks and Ro- 
mans, Taras, Poseidon, or Neptune. 

A. D. 800, Rome. — In the Italian pontificate of Leo III., 795-816, 
one year of an " Indiction was left out, or (else) a year of the world 
counted twice over." Bury, op. cit., II, 425. Heimbach, in "Ersch 
und Gruber," p. 215, holds the latter, whilst Bury adheres to the 
former view. The year thus "tampered with " (Bury) belongs to the 
eighth century. Perhaps it was dropped by Gregory VII. in order 
to bring the coronation and sera of Charlemagne, which is dated in 
this year, to a round number of years after the Nativity of Christ. 
(See below.) 



^RAS. 207 

A. D. 800, India. — Coronation, first regnal year and sera of Amo- 
gavarsha I., son of Govinda III. , rajah of Gujerat. (Salivahana, 736, 
is equal to the Christian year 800, or the Augustan year 815; hence, 
Duff Rickmers says A. D. 814.) Amogavarsha was a Digambara 
Jain, who having conquered many of the Western countries of India, 
set himself up for a god and was worshipped as such by the lords of 
Vanga, Anga, Magadha, Malava and Vengi. 

A. D. 800, India. — Sergius, a Manichean, appeared and preached 
at Lha-dac, (near Canacor,) the metropolis of the Gangeatic prov- 
inces, about the beginning of the ninth century. Col. Wilford, in 
Asiat. Res., IX, 217. 

A. D. 800, Rome. — Brumalia, now Christmas Day, December 25. 
Coronation and aera of Charlemagne and of his adoration by Pope 
Leo III. Chronicle of Moissac; Bury, op. cit. ; Bryce, op. cit. See 
A. D. 790. 

A. D. 825, Southern India. — Kollam, or Parasurama, (Simha; 
Kanya.) Sewell's '' Indian Calendar." Because he can find no ex- 
tant record of its use earlier than A. D. 825, Sewell believed this year 
to be the epoch of the Kollam gera. Such a conclusion is hardly 
warranted of a country whose antiquities are as yet so little under- 
stood in the Occident as those of India. Indeed, Sewell contradicts 
himself in saying further on that the Kollam is divided by the Hindus 
into cycles of 1,000 years, of which the present period is deemed the 
fourth; and therefore, that according to them, this Kollam began in 
Calijoga 1927, or B. C. 1175, or in 3528 of Scaliger's Julian period. 
As the latter corresponds with B. C. 1185, either the calendar, or 
Mr. Sewell, is, in this instance, ten years wrong. The Pandits say 
that the fourth cycle of the Parsurama commenced in September, 

A. D. 825. This is a mistake for A. D. 1825. Duff Rickmers calls 
this year, beginning August 25th, "the epoch of the Kollam Andu, 
or sidereal reckoning, of North Malabar, dating from the sun's en- 
tering Kanya on the 1,434, i6oth day of the Calijoga. There is a 
Southern Kollam, which begins a month earlier. Thirty days are inter- 
calated in 116 years, making the average year 365d., 6h., 24.8s." See 

B. C. 1 176. 

A. D. 845, India.— Augustan date of the re-incarnation of 
Brahma, the sixth Divine Year since the Calijoga. Table A. 

A. D. 845, Tartary.— ^ra of this empire, according to Genghis 
Khan, 12th century, who declared that he was the re-incarnation of 
that Deity who was due to appear, and who had appeared, in Tartary 



2oS A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

towards the beginning of the ninth century of ouraera. Major R. D. 
Osborn's "Islam," p. 371. 

A. D. 849, England. — Alfred the Great, b. 849; r. 871; d. Oct. 
28, 901. 

A. D. 870, Nepal. — Newar aera. The Pandits' " Chron.," p. xix. 

A. D. 879, Nepal. — Newar aera. Sewell and Duff Rickmers. 

A. D. 880, Nepal. — Nepal, or Newar aera, recovered from coins. 
In 1768, when Nepal was conquered by the Goorkhas, this sera was 
discarded for that of Salivahana, or the Vicramaditya, or else for 
the Jovian Saka, which was re-established in A. D. 78. Cunning- 
ham. The Pandits state that the Nepal sra has been superceded by 
the Vicramaditya. Sewell fixed this aera (the Nepalese) in A. D. 879 
and its epoch on Kartika ist. Stokvis says October, 880. For a 
similar change of aera at same period in Mysore, see B. C, 3102. For 
a like change in China, see B. C. 2632. 

A. D. 880, Tibet.— ^ra of Khri 1 De Ssrong b Tsan, an "in- 
carnation" of the Deity. App. Cyc. . art. "Lamaism. " 

A. D. 890, India. — Toward the end of the ninth century another 
Salivahana "manifested himself at Delhi." Col. Wilford, op. cit. 
The date 890 is conjectural. 

A. D. 909, Egypt. — ^ra of Abu Mohammed Obeidallah, the first 
Fatimite caliph of Egypt. He announced himself as the Mahdi, or 
Messiah, foretold in the Koran. His successor, Ahmed, A. D. 929, 
struck gold coins, whilst another of the same line, A. D. 974, struck 
glass coins; both in defiance of the prerogatives assumed by the 
caliph of Baghdad. 

A. D. 914, Arabia.— Death of Al Hallaj, A. H. 301. This im- 
postor pretended to be the Messiah, or Son of God. Albiruni, 188, 
says he affected to be the Almighty himself. 

A. D. 922, Baghdad. — ^ra of Mansur, or Huseyn Ibn Mansur, 
called also Abul-Mughith. He was born at Beyza in Fars, and "af- 
ter a life spent in teaching the most exalted mysticism," was put to 
death by command of the Mahometan mollahs for impiously declar- 
ing himself to be the Almighty. His execution took place at Bagh- 
dad, on the 24th of Zil-Kada, A. H. 309, or March 26th, A. D. 922. 
Note on p. 242 of Browne's "History of the Bab." It is not known 
how many, if any, of Mansur's followers survive at the present day. 

A. D. 930, Iceland. — Establishment of the Republic of lesland 
by the Norsemen. 

A. D. 931, Arabia. — Death of Ibn Abi-Zakariyya, A. H. 319. 



^RAS. 209 

This impostor pretended to be the Messiah, and Son of God. Albiruni, 
188, says that he impiously proclaimed himself as God. 

A. D. 936, Granada. — Secession of Granada from the Caliphate 
of Baghdad, which was declared and effected this year by Abd-el- 
Raman III., "Son of Maria," (Calcott, I, 200,) the first Moslem 
sovereign in Spain who struck coins of gold. 

A. D. 937, Peru. — Supposed date and correction of the native 
calendar, deduced by Greswell from his hypothesis of a Primitive 
Hebrew Year. 

A. D. 965, Northern India. — Rise of the Kalachakra system of 
Buddhism in Northern India, Cashmir and Nepal. Csoma, "Gram- 
mar," p. 192, Duff Rickmers. 

A. D. 965, India. — Re-establishment of the Vri-haspati cycles of 
60 years. According to the Joyotistava, this year completed the 15th 
cycle. The Pandits. But see A. D. 78, 1024, 1025, 1027 and 1807. 

A. D. 978, Turkestan. — ^ra of Seljuk, son of Alankavah, the 
Virgin Mother. Mirkhond, cited by Gibbon, V, 654, n. Year un- 
certain; varying from 971 to 978. See sera of Roum, A. D. 1078. 

A. D. 982, America. — Discovery of America by the Norsemen 
from Iceland, which, since A. D. 930, had been an independent Re- 
public, whose populace, history and religion removed it entirely 
beyond the influence of the Roman empire. After America was dis- 
covered Christianity was introduced, A. D. 1008. The dates and 
leadership of the various expeditions which sailed to and explored 
the coasts of America are given by Mallet as follows: 

982. — Eric the Red; lands near Cape Farewell. 

986. — Eric the Red; East coast of Baffin's Bay. 

986. — Bjarni; Herjulf-ness, Greenland. 

998. — Leif, son of Eric; East and West Bygd, Greenland, where 
colonies were planted, 280 farms were cultivated and 15 Christian 
churches and 83 monasteries were erected before 1121, when the first 
bishop was ordained. 

1000. — Leif ; discovers Helluland (Newfoundland), Markland(Nova 
Scotia), Leifsbooths (Nantucket Bay) and Vine- land (Martha's Vine- 
yard). 

1002. — Thorvald colonises Leifsbooths. 

1003. — Thorvald discovers coasts of the Carolinas. 

1004. — Thorvald sails inside Cape Cod and lands at Keel-ness. 

1005. — Thornstein; East coast Baffin's Bay. 

1007. — Thorfinn and Gudrida his wife, together with 160 persons 
provided with live stock and other supplies visit Cape Sable Island, 



210 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Cape Cod and Stromfiord, Buzzard's Bay, at which last place they 
settle. Here in 1008 was born Snorri Thorfinnson, the progenitor of 
Thorwalsden, the famous Danish sculptor. 

1008. — Thorfinn, Mount Hope Bay. 

loii. — Helgi and Finnbogi, Leifbooths, 

1014. — Thorfinn returns with his wife and child and a valuable 
cargo to Iceland. There leaving his family, he sails to Norway and 
Bremen, where he disposes of his cargo and again returns to Iceland, 
where he dies. The widow then performs a pilgrimage to Rome, 
where, had they not been already known through other sources, she 
would scarcely have failed to mention the American discoveries. At 
all events, they were published in the reign of Sveyn II., by Adam of 
Bremen, about 1067, who wrote: " The king also made mention of 
another region discovered in the Northern Ocean, which had been 
visited by many people and was called Vineland, because grapes that 
produce a very good wine grew there spontaneously; corn also 
grows there, without sowing, in great abundance. We know this, 
not by fabulous hearsay, but from authentic accounts furnished by 
Danes." (Adam Brem. de situ Dan. c. 246.) The narrative of 
Thorfinn's colony, published about 11 23 was probably written by 
Tholak Runolf's son. 

1 12 1. — Eric, first Christian bishop of Greenland, appointed this 
year, visits the colony of Vineland, which he probably persuaded 
to return to Iceland; for except in the sagas, we hear no more of it. 

1264. — Iceland becomes subject to Norway and loses its repub- 
lican constitution. Before this date all further exploration to the 
westward had ceased. 

1285. — Athalbrand and Thorvald discover a new land west of Ice- 
land, but no results follow. 

1290. — Eric III., king of Norway, called the "Priest-hater," 
dispatches Rolf, the Discoverer, to explore the coasts of America. 
In 1291 the Genoese send a ship to the Westward with the same ob- 
ject. Anderson, sub anno. 

1295. — Assassination of Rolf the Discoverer. The exploration 
of America again dropped. In 1299 a voyage was made from 
Bilbao to Greenland. Anderson. 

1347. — A Greenland bark which had visited Stromfiord reports 
that she had rescued 17 men from a boat or wreck at sea. They 
had attempted to reach Markland, but had failed. 

This appears to have been the last of the Norse voyages to Amer- 
ica. Indeed, they ceased substantially about the period that Iceland 



iERAS. 21 r 

lost its autonomy; an event that followed closely upon the conquest 
of Constantinople by the Latin papacy and its assumption of entire 
control over the Western Kingdoms. This prompted its legates and 
bishops to discourage any further exploration of America, for fear 
that it might result in the discovery of a sea route to India and so 
ruin the trade of the Levant. Many runic monuments and other re- 
mains of the Norsemen have been found in Greenland, but none of 
an unquestionably valid character in Markland or Vineland; the rude 
characters engraved on the Dighton rock being of doubtful origin. 
Among the Greenland remains is a runic monument discovered in 
i824atKingiktorsoak, Baffin's Bay, the inscription upon which is thus 
translated: " Erling Sighvats-son and Bjarni Thordarsson and Ein- 
dridi Odds-son, on Laugarday (Saturday) before Gangday (Whitsun- 
tide), raised these marks and cleared the land, 1135." Mallet, North. 
Ant. 248; "Ancient Britain," chap. II, n. 13; Sagas of Eirek the 
Red and Thorfinn Karlsef ni, in the Codex Flatoiensis, published A. D. 
1387 to 1395 ; Ant. Am. Copenh. 1837. See also A. D. 1453, herein. 

A. D. 999, Ghazni. — Mahmoud of Ghazni declares his indepen- 
dence of the caliphate of Baghdad and separates Balkh, Herat, and 
other districts of Caubal, (the Greek Bactria), from the Arabian Em- 
pire. 

A. D. 1000, Europe. — The Millenium. The Brahmo-Buddhic 
date of Buddha's birth was B. C. 6000 (Table B). The second Budd- 
hic, Bacchic, or Dionysian Cycle from Salivahana, or les Chrishna, 
ended with A. D. 1000. (Table D). Upon these materials the 
medieval astrologers built a new mythos which is thus described: 
As the world had been created in six days, which were followed by a 
seventh day of rest, it was argued by "analogy " that the 6000 years 
of the Septuagint, which closed with the birth of Christ, would be 
followed by 1000 years of Sabbath, which would terminate with the 
second coming of the Saviour. Gibbon, I, 562«. "It was a uni- 
versal belief in the Middle Ages that the world was to finish with 
the year 1000 of the Incarnation. . . . Donations to the churches 
were multipled. ... A terrible plague raged in Aquitaine; the 
churches were besieged and all the roads leading to popular shrines, 
or places of pilgrimage, were crowded with the plague-stricken popu- 
lation." Morell's Hist. France, 107. For a long period previous to 
this year no public buildings were erected, no basilicse, temples, or 
monuments; but when the dreaded year was safely passed numerous 
structures were commenced. Encyc. Brit., "Architecture." Vol- 
taire I, 265, declares that two crusades to Jerusalem were attempted 



212 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

at this period, and he intimates that their object was to reach the 
Holy City before the end of the world approached. According to 
this opinion Peter Hermit, Joachim the Prophet, St. Barnard of 
Clairvaux and St. Norbert were all imitators. Cf. Baronius, XII, 51, 
An. 1 106. It is rather singular both of this year and 1492 that 
while the Romans were looking for the destruction of the old world, 
the Norse pagans and Moslem heretics took part in discovering a 
new one. 

A. D. 1002, England. — Massacre of the Danes by order of King 
Ethelred, on Hokeday, afterwards called St. Brice's; not St. Bride's, 
nor St. Bridget's, as in some works. Grafton and Holingshed fix 
this event in the year 1012. In medieval hagiology St. Brice was a 
bishop of Tours, the successor of St. Martin and the putative father 
of a miraculous infant, which, when only 30 days old, testified re- 
garding its own paternity and whose mother was the bishop's laun- 
dress. Brady, "Clavis Calendaria," II, 276. The festival day of 
St. Brice is fixed by Brady on November 13th, which is so near Mar- 
tinmas as to excite the suspicion that these festivals may have an- 
ciently been connected. Sebastiano de Covarruvias Orosco, in his 
"Tesoro," Madrid, 1611, says that Hoguera was anciently a Feast 
of the Dead. This was the Sothic festival marking the heliacal 
rising of the Pleiades, which has been elucidated so fully by Hali- 
burton. The massacre seems to have been incited by the millenium. 

A. D. 1009, Egypt. — ^ra of Hakem, a Fatimite caliph, "the 
tenth manifestation of the Most High," upon whose advent the re- 
ligion of the Druses is supposed to be founded. See A. D. 909. 
This "incarnation" styled himself Hakem-biamr- Allah, which was 
shortened to Bemrillah. Higgins identifies his followers with the 
Assassins. Anacal. I, 699, and authorities cited. But this is doubt- 
ful. See A. D. 909 and 1090. 

A. D. 1024, China. — First year of Jovian cycle 57; birth of 
Tchin-tsong, who, in A. D. 1035, picked up the book of Tao, which 
had fallen from Heaven. (See A. D. 1035.) The year A. D. 1024 
marks the establishment of the Kia-tse, or Jovian cycles of 60 years, 
says Cunningham, who, however, in admitting that the Jovian cycles 
of India "must have been in use before the Christian fera, " implies 
a somewhat like antiquity for those of China. The Jesuit astrono- 
mers, cited by Father Du Halde, admitted, without reserve, a far 
greater antiquity for the Kia-tse, holding that they had actually 
been in use in all strictly historical time. See B. C. 2717 and A. D. 
1025 and 1027. The fact seems to be that the Kia-tse were used in 



iERAS. 213 

China many centuries before our sera, the Chinese fixing their begin- 
ning in B. C. 2337, though this date is much too ancient. The Kia-tse 
were abandoned in favour of other methods of computing time, and 
were finally revived by the Taoists of the nth century. This revival 
is what Cunningham, Bentley and others, have mistaken for the origin 
of these cycles and seras. 

A.D. 1025, Tibet.— Re-establishment of the Vri-haspati-chakra, 
or method of counting time by Jovian cycles of 60 years. The Ti- 
beto-Moslem writers on the Kali-chakra claim that the Jovian 60- 
year cycles in India are not older than about A. D. 965-6, nor in 
Tibet than about 1025-6. (See A. D. 622.) Mr. Bentley, the eccle- 
siastical astronomer, used this evidence to invalidate the antiquity of 
oriental astronomy, and in this respect Gen. Cunningham followed 
him. The Pandits, remembering that Bentley and Cunningham were 
English, and fearful of offending their English readers, have followed 
these writers; yet elsewhere in their "chronology" they represent 
this cycle as "one of the most ancient in all Asia," and begin its use 
in B. C. 3185, 3174 and 31 14. The true cycle of Jupiter is approxi- 
mately 12 years; the 60-year cycle being merely one of its multiples; 
so that in speaking of one, the other is implied; and both are repre- 
sented in our divisions of the zodiac, the clock, etc., which in Chal- 
dea are certainly as old as Nebu-Nazaru, and in the orient very much 
older. The Chinese begin these cycles in B. C. 2717, (q. v.). Says 
Rev. Dr. Greswell, F. C, III, 361 : "The existence of this dodecse- 
teric period of antiquity is an acknowledged fact." Brennand and 
Lewis are more explicit and assign the Jovian cycle to a high antiq- 
uity. Such cycles are mentioned in the fragments attributed to Or- 
pheus. Censorinus, who wrote during the third century, attributes 
a dodecseteris to the ancient Chaldeans. (D. N., xviii.) A dodecse- 
teris, which appears to have been formed on the Jovian cycle, is rec- 
ognized in the Surya Siddhanta, the Geoponica and many other very 
ancient works and systems. The oriental nations have evidently 
exaggerated the antiquity of this cycle ; but it was certainly known 
and used at the period of the second Buddha, and probably at that 
of the first Buddha. The Pandits furnish formulae for computing the 
years of this cycle by three systems, the Surya Siddhanta, Jyotistava, 
and Telinga. Each year of the 60 has a different name, both in In- 
dia, China and Japan. In Tibet they use both the Chinese and Indian 
names. The astronomical year of Tibet begins with lesaac, or Bai- 
sack ist, on the vernal equinox. The civil year is luni-solar, its epoch 
varying in the several provinces from December to February. The 



214 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Hors, or Twrks, keep their New Year some days after the winter 
solstice; the people of U'tsang at L'hassa begin theirs with the new 
moon of February. The year A. D. 965-6 is believed to have com- 
pleted the 69th cycle of the Surya Siddhanta, 68th of the Telinga 
astronomers and 15th of the Jyotistava. The Pandits. 

A. D. 1027, India. — Re-establishment of the Vrihaspati-chakra, 
or Jovian cycles, of 60 years, a difference of three years from the 
Chinese reckoning of A. D. 1024. Cunningham. See A. D. i024> 
1025, and A. D. 1807. 

A. D. 1035, China. — The Book of Tao falls from Heaven. See 
A. D. 1024. 

A. D. 1038, Korassan. — The Seljuks annex Korassan in the 
name of Tugril Beg, A. H. 429. Some authorities date the Seljukian 
sera from this year; others from A. H. 431 ; and still others from A. D. 
1076, q. V. 

A. D. 1050, Rome. — Lanfranc, superior of the Benedictine con- 
vent of St. Maur, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Nico- 
las, cardinal and librarian of of the Roman church, revise the text 
of the Scriptures. Gibbon, ch. XXXVII, note 117. 

A. D. 1075, Persia. — Julali, or Jul-al-ad-din aera. "The Julali 
begins from Shaban 5th, A. H. 468, under Jul-al-ad-din. The year 
begins with the Nauroz, (New Year,) or the day that the sun enters 
Aries." The Pandits "Chron.,"p. xviii. See A. D. 1079. 

A. D. 1076, Korassan. — ^ra of the Chalukya, or Seljuka dyn- 
asty. Cunningham. Gibbon, V, 654, says A. D. 1038. Stokvissays 
A. D. 1077. Sewell says this sera was not used after 1162. 

A. D. 1076, Chalukya. — Epoch, 14th February, Salivahana, 997. 
Beginning of the Chalukya (Seljuk) Vikrama-varsha sera. First year 
of the reign of Vikramaditya VI. Duff Rickmers. 

A. D. 1078, Roum. — ^ra of the Seljukian kingdom of Roum, 
whose capital was fixed this year at Nicaea by Soliman, the Gazi. 
Gibbon, V, 675. See sera of Seljuk, ante. 

A. D. 1079, Persia. — Jul-al-ad-din sera, begins 15th March, at 
noon. This was the day of the vernal equinox at Ispahan. Duff 
Rickmers says March 24th. Stokvis says March 14th. Jul-al-ad-din, 
or "Divine Glory," a Seljukian Sultan, was otherwise called Melek 
Shah. He was the first " barbarian " to "become a caliph, or Emir- 
al-omra. Commander of the Faithful." Gibbon, V, 670. Greswell, 
F. C, I, 682, who calls this sera the "Gelalasan," fixes its epoch 
in Phervandinmah ist=March 15th, A. D. 1079, and elsewhere says 
it was calculated with such precision that some astronomers have 



^RAS. 215 

preferred it to the Gregorian correction of the Julian «ra; and that 
the French Directory of 1792 contemplated its adoption for the cal- 
endar of the Republic. The author of the Persian calculations was 
the celebrated astronomer and poet, Omar Khayyam. 

A. D. 1081, Armenia. — ^ra Armeniaca Azaraica. Two or three 
years after the publication of the calendar of Omar Khayyam the 
Armenians dropped their previous method of computing time by Budd- 
hic cycles of 552 years and, instead, adopted the Dionysian or Pas- 
chal cycle of 532 years. Cf. Greswell, F. C, Intro., xvii. See 
A. D. 552. 

A. D. 1090, Persia. — ^ra of the Assassins, under Nassan-ben- 
Sabah. The leader of this murderous sect in Syria was known as 
the "Old Man of the Mountain." Yet, so late as the end of the 
12th century the Assassins employed the sera of Alexander the Great. 

A. D. 1090, Mexico. — Beginning of the native Aztec Julian sera, 
the previous calendar years having been equable. Epoch, correspond- 
ing to our ist January. Prinsep. Other authorities say 25th De- 
cember of the same year. In both cases the winter solstice of A.D. 
1090, may be meant. Humboldt dates the reform in A. D. 1091. 
The Aztec Julian year consisted of s6^d. 5h. 46m. 9 3-13S., being 
only 2m. 36 10-13S. shorter than the true time. According to New- 
comb this is 365d. 5h. 48m. 46s. At the end of a cycle of 52 years 
the Aztecs added 13 days; and at the end of another cycle of 52 
years they added 12 days to their calendar; thus 25 days in 104 years. 
The Pandits' "Chron. " Aztec tradition says that the Quinames 
were the original possessors of Mexico. Their records furnish the 
following dates: A. D. 544, the Toltecs leave their original seat; 
A. D. 648, they enter Mexico; A. D. 700, beginning of Toltec sera 
in Mexico (Greswell); A. D. 1325, foundation of the Aztec empire 
in Mexico; A. D. 1525, death of Montezuma and conquest of the 
empire by the Spaniards, under Hernando Cortes. For other dates 
relating to Mexico see B. C. 955. 

A. D. 1095, Europe. — Popular date of the first Crusade. But 

see A, D. 1000. 

A. D. 1105, Bengal. — Lakshmana Sena sera, epoch, Kartika 1st. 
Cunningham. Stokvis says January, 11 06. Keilhorn and Sewell say 
A. D. 1 1 19; a difference of 14 years from Cunningham. 

A. D. 1114, Simla. — ^ra of Simla, beginning with the month of 
Ashadha. Duff Rickmers says 11 13. Sewell fixes the Simla Samvat 
used in Guzerat, in 11 13-14. The Pandits fix the Siva-Sinha Samvat 



2l6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

of the Gohils, in the island of Dee, in Vicramaditya Samvat 1169, 
or A. D. 1 1 12. 

A. D. 1119, Bengal. — Lakshmana Sena, according to Sewell, 
epoch, Kartika ist. This aera was established by a Vaidya king of 
Bengal, named Laksmanasena. 

A. D. 1145, Rome. — The alleged venality and corruption of the 
Roman pontifical court led to a movement for the separation of 
Church and State which was voiced by Arnold of Brescia. For this 
he was condemned at the Lateran Council of 1139 and banished from 
Italy. In 1145 the exactions of the papal See led to popular resist- 
ance; a Republic was proclaimed; the Senate was reconstituted; the 
temporal power of the pope was repudiated and the holy father was 
forced to retire from the city; coins were struck in the name of the 
Roman Republic; liberty was proclaimed; a secular magistrate was 
appointed; Arnold was sent for; and he returned to Rome to govern 
the new state. In 1155 a counter-revolution of the fickle populace 
compelled Arnold to seek refuge in the country; the pope returned 
to Rome in triumph and Arnold was apprehended, dragged to Rome 
and crucified on the Piazza del Popolo. To hinder the degraded popu- 
lace from worshipping his remains they were burnt and the ashes 
thrown into the Tiber. 

A. D. 1154, Bengal. — ^ra of Bengal: Marsden, op. cit. It is 
based on the Divine Year of Salivahana, the variance being due to 
the Augustan alteration of the calendar and to the difference between 
the Moslem and Hindu calendars. 

A. D. 1163, Tartary. — Birth, of Genghis Khan, or Zinghis Khan. 
See A. D. 1206. 

A. D. 1186, Europe. — End of the world in this year, foretold 
by astrologers. Encyc. Brit., art. "Astrologers." 

A. D. 1190, Persia. — Advent of David El David, a Jewish Mes- 
siah, during the reign of Laid Alladin. Wm. a'Beckett, Univ. Biog. 
Year uncertain. 

A. D. 1204, Europe. — Fall of Constantinople and termination 
of the Sacred Roman Empire. 

A. D. 1206, Tartary. — ^raof the Apotheosis of Genghis Khan, 
born 1 163; deified 1206; started from Lake Baikal for the conquest 
of China, 1214; died 1227. This conqueror claimed to be a re- 
incarnation of the Deity, who had formerly appeared upon earth, an 
event that had occurred, according to Maj. R. D. Osborn's " Islam," 
p. 371, about the beginning of the ninth century. The incarnation 
thus referred to could only have been that of the 13th Brahma, or 



^RAS. 217 

Vishnu, due A. D. 845, Augustan date. If so, it marked the rise of 
three other independent Moslem empires besides that of Tartary, viz. , 
Egypt, Granada and Ghazni. See A. D. 845, 909, 936 and 999. Hig- 
gins, Anacal. II, 353, says that Genghis claimed to be the tenth 
avatar; and that his mother was a widow, who pretended she had 
been impregnated by the Sun. In stating his claim to supernatural 
origin Genghis appears to have been badly advised by the astrolo- 
gers, for his case would have been very much stronger had he pre- 
tended to be, not the relic of a Brahminical, but the hero of the 
Hindu incarnation due A. D. 1237. Cf. Rankin, Hist. Mong., 177. 
As the reigning Chinese monarchs claim descent from this Son of 
Heaven, it is possible that Genghis permitted his astrology to be 
modified by the requirements of his new subjects. The Encyc. Brit, 
presents what might be called the Chinese, or Buddhic, case for 
Genghis. It says that he was the son of Yesukai, the eighth in de- 
scent from Budantsar. As it intimates that Budanstar is mentioned 
in the " History of the T'ang dynasty of China " (A. D. 619-90,) it 
follows that Budantsar's sera was of a previous date, say A. D. 548, 
that being just one divine year before the deification of Genghis 
Khan. The names both of Budantsar and Yesukai, or lesuchi, are 
significant. 

A. D. 1227, Tartary. — Death and bodily ascension to' heaven 
of Genghis Khan, who was worshipped as the expected Messiah or 
God on earth, according to Higgins, Anacal., I, 356. 

A. D. 1237, India. — Pre- Augustan date of the Brahmo-Buddhic 
re-incarnation, or re-birth, or Divine Year, of the Hindu Brahma- 
Buddha, or les Chrishna. 

A. D. 1260, Rome. — Second coming of Christ expected by the 
Sacred College. Higgins, Anacal., I, 689. 

A. D. 1281, Tibet. — Ti-ssu, the Saca Lama. Exactly one Divine 
Year, or Astrological cycle, or phen, after Srong Tsau Sgampo 
and the deification of lesdegerd, Kanouj, etc. He was called "the 
Lama of Sakya. " Appleton fixes his apotheosis in 1280. 

A. D. 1296, Delhi.— vEra of Ala, a Patau King of Delhi, during 
whose reign, A. D. 1296-1316, the particular year being uncertain, 
he set himself up for an incarnation of the Deity and affected the 
sacred name of Iss-kander (the name assumed by Alexander the 
Great) and Jul-al-addin (Melek Shah). See above, A. D. 1079. Ala's 
impious pretensions were cut short by poison, administered by Kafur,. 
grand vizier. Garrett, Hist. Ind., 6^. 



216 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

A. D. 1307, Switzerland. — ^raof the Republic. Declaration 

of Independence, November 4th. 

A. D. 1311, Boeotia. — Thebes plundered and destroyed by the 
Catalan Grand Company of Barcelona. Encyc. Brit. 

A. D. 1317, India. — Nirvana of Buddha, Augustan date. Table B. 

A. D. 1344, Tibet. — ^^ra of the Great Buddha's last re-incarna- 
tion, according to the information derived personally from the Grand 
Lama or Little Buddha, by Rev. D. W. Le Lacheur. " When we en- 
tered the Buddha's tent, he sat me on his mat and (in that sacred 
seat) I am sorry to say, I was worshipped (by his people). . . . 
The Buddha was laughing all the time (at my confusion). . . . Asked 
when the Great Buddha would return, he said: 'In 773 (years) from 
this Chicken year (1887) the Great Buddha will be upon the earth.' " 
"The Land of the Llamas," by Le Lacheur, South Nyack, N. Y., 
1887, p. 58. Adding 773 to 1887 makes 2660, the year of the Great 
Buddha. Deducting from this, three divine years each of 658 com- 
mon years, carries the computation of the Great Buddha year back 
to A. D. 1344. See A. D. 1281, 1347, 1355 and 1360. 

A. D. 1344, Southern Konkan. — Joor san, Shoo-hur, or Shahur. 
(Shahur is the Arabian word for "months"). There is reason to 
believe that this aera was established by one of the Moslem kings of 
the Deccan, subject to the sway of Tugluk Khan. It is founded on 
the Hegira and is distant from it one astrological cycle, plus 64 
years, thus 622 plus 658 plus 64=1344, There is much confusion 
concerning its epoch. In one place the Pandits fix this at June 6, 
1342, or A, H. 743, and they add that "others place it a year 
earlier." In another part of their chronology they say Shahur 1313 
equals A. D. 1834. Their final figure for the epoch of Shahur is 
A. D. 1344, and they refer to Jervis' "Report on the Weights and 
Measures of Southern Konkan," or Concan, which is now included in 
the Presidency of Bombay. 

A. D. 1347, Tibet.— ^ra of Tasi, a Buddhisatva. Appleton's Cyc. 

A. D. 1348, Abyssinia. — ^ra of Maherat, (or Year of Grace). 
The Abyssinians pretend that they were converted to Christianity 
A. D. 348, and that when a thousand years from this period had ac- 
cumulated they were cast off and a new reckoning of another thou- 
sand years was begun from the point where the previous millenium 
ended. Gresswell, F. C. Introd., xvi. 

A.D. 1355, Tibet. — Immaculate conception and miraculous birth 
of Tsong-K'apa Lama, the "incarnation of Makala. " Ascended 
bodily to heaven in 1419. Appleton's Cyc. 



^RAS. 2191 

A. D. 1360, Tibet. — According to the "Century Magazine" for 
December, 1890, Tsong-K'apa was born A. D. 1360, near where 
Kumbum now stands. After performing his religious mission and 
ascending to heaven he was ' ' transmigrated into the person of Gedun- 
drupa, who founded the Trashil 'unpo lamasery in 1446 and became 
the first of the series of incarnated gods, known as Panch'en rinpoche ; 
although native works say that the first pontiff bearing this title was 
born in 1567, (a Brahminical date). Becoming afterwards incarnate 
in Gedunjyats'o, he returned to L'hassa," etc. Jyats'o means the 
sea; hence " Ged un Jyats'o," possibly, God of the Seas; a form of 
the Neptune Myth. The Japanese conferred a similar title upon 
some of their deified emperors. At Samos, during the sixth century 
B. C. the king threw into the sea a golden ring. Herodotus, Thalia, 
41. "The prince of Mingrelia (Colchis) assumes the title of Dadian 
(Dar-dion?) or Lord of the Sea, though he possesses not even a fish- 
ing boat." (Malte-Brun, Geog. I, 304.) In Venice the doge, or 
duke, annually weds the sea, by casting a ring into its waters. This 
custom is said to have been instituted by ' ' the Pope " of Rome in A. D. 
1 1 77, a year in which there were five rival Popes, viz., Alexander, 
Victor, Paschal, Calixtus and Innocent. In fact the custom is of far 
higher antiquity. It appears to have been brought from the Orient 
through Colchis, Pontus and Samos to Venice and perhaps also to 
Tarentum. 

A. D. 1370, Tartary, Zagatai. — ^ra or first regnal year of 
Timur-Bec, (Tamerlane,) born 1336; died February 19, 1405. His 
conquests, which began with the empire of Zagatai, (capital, Samar- 
cand,) afterwards extended over Persia, Baghdad, Muscovy, Russia, 
India, Syria, and also, nominally, over Egypt and several other states. 
He announced himself as the Paraclete and Deliverer, whose divine 
mission it was to proclaim the kingdom of God, punish idolatry and 
advance the cause of civilisation. He was guarded by 300 Selecti. 
Life by Sherefeddin Ali, translated by P. de la Croix, London, 1723. 
Tamerlane pretended to be the Son of the Sun, Higgins, Anacal., 

II, 353- 

A. D. 1391, Corea. — ^ra of "the Foundation," that is to say, 
the Mongol conquest of Corea, deduced from the Treaty between 
Corea and Japan, A. D. 1894. Sinensis, (Japanese Min. to England, 
1896,) says the epoch of the Foundation was 1392. "The 23rd day, 
sixth moon " of Corea agrees with the Japanese sera of Meiji, "25th 
day, seventh moon." Sinensis also says that the 17th day of the 
nth moon of the So4th year of the Corean monarchy, became, after 



220 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

January 6th, 1896, the first day of the first moon, of the 505th year; 
the king having resolved to adopt the Gregorian calendar. 

A. D. 1436, Abyssinia. — ^ra of Abyssinia, according to Gres- 
well,F. C.,I, 555. 

A. D. 1453, Constantinople. — May 29. Capture of Constanti- 
nople by the Turks under Mahomet II., and final dissolution of the 
Roman Empire. Mahomet granted the subjugated Christians per- 
sonal security and the free exercise of their religion. Haydn, voc. 
"Eastern Empire," In 1492, the Latins responded to this act of 
clemency by plundering and expelling all the Moslems and Jews from 
Spain. The fall of the Roman Empire had the effect to close the 
lucrative oriental trade to Venice, Genoa and the other Latinized 
states, and confer it entirely upon the Moslems. This event induced 
the Latin Pontificate to moderate that hostility toward maritime ex- 
ploration westward, which had marked its policy with the Norsemen. 
(See A. D. 982.) The removal of this discouragement was soon af- 
terwards followed by Columbus' discovery of America and De Gama's 
opening of the sea-route to India. 

A. D. 1469, Punjab. — ^ra of Nanek, Nanac, or Baba Nanac, at 
first the leader and teacher, afterwards the Messiah of the Sikhs. 
"The belief of the Sikhs was originally, according to Malcolm, a 
pure deism, but it has so far degenerated that they now consider 
their founder as a Saviour and Mediator with God." Thornton's 
Gaz., art. "Punjab.'.' Nanac was born at Raypur, 60 miles west of 
Lahore, and was named Guru, or " Spiritual pastor " by his votaries, 
who called themselves Sikhs, or "disciples." Nanac advocated the 
assumption of arms, the renunciation of caste, the elevation of wo- 
man, the protection and education of children, the admission of pros- 
elytes, the unity and incorporeality of God, and religious toleration 
to all. While he deplored religious disputes, he never ceased to preach 
against the Hindu trinity, polytheism, the worship of saints and im- 
ages and the decoration of temples. His justice was inflexible; his 
courage above suspicion ; his reading immense. His only weapon of 
proselytism was persuasion and simplicity of manners. In 15 years 
he traversed the kingdoms of India, Persia, Arabia and Ceylon, 
preaching the unity of God. After many adventures, the Rajah of 
Callanor, one of his disciples, offered him a retreat for his old age, 
where he died in tranquility A. D. 1539, aged 70 years; a term which 
is rarely attained by the founders of religions. The place of his 
burial became famous, and every year upon the return of his death- 
day an immense concourse of people gather to pay their respects to 



^RAS. 221 

his remains. Noel, art. "Nanac." Those Sikhs who adhere to the 
original doctrines of Nanac are called Khalasa; they are less fanati- 
cal than the Singhs (lions), a class of Sikhs who in resentment for 
the murder of Guru Govind, the fourth leader after Nanac, have never 
ceased to bear arms, even in times of peace. To such an inexcusa- 
ble extreme has this precept been carried that, as Barnes observes, 
it has rendered many of them insane; a disease which, it may be 
added, has not been lessened by their proclivity to renounce the 
purer doctrine of the Khalasas and relapse into image-worship. 
Thornton's Gaz. of India, art. "Amritsu." 

A. D. 1488, India. — Termination of the XlVth avatar of lesnu, 
according to Christian chronology. Table A. It was possibly to 
dissipate the fears which this sera engendered concerning the des- 
truction of the world that induced the learned Alfonso of Castile to 
construct a chronology based upon Dionysian divine years — which 
went back to B. C. 6994 and threw the incarnation periods into new 
forms. See B. C. 6984. 

A. D. 1492, Byzantium. — Expected millenium and end of the 

World. Upon the assumption that the Creation took place Septem- 
ber I, B. C. 5509, q. v., the present year was A. M. 7000, when the 
world was to come to an end. Uranologium, 379, E. cap. xvi. While 
the Greek church were looking for this catastrophe, the Latin church, 
which enjoyed the advantage of a different Anno Mundi, employed 
its energies in persecuting the Moslems and Jews, several hundred 
thousands of whom were this year (March 30) robbed, tortured and 
driven out of Spain. Meanwhile, following the route laid down for 
him in 1474 by the Moor Toscanelli, Columbus, who indulged no 
theories of a millenium and was a mere navigator with a practical 
object in view, found a New World, the plunder of which enabled 
the almost extinguished torch of European progress to be lit afresh. 
See A. D. 493. 

A. D. 1492, America. — Its discovery by Columbus, October 12. 
This great event, combined with De Gama's voyage to India in 1497, 
had the effect, eventually, to change the whole course of astrological 
and religious doctrine and political development. However, before 
this occurred, Cortes advised the king of Spain by letter (in Kings- 
borough, VI, iii), to obtain a grant of the tithes of the Mexicans 
from Pope Alexander VI. The royal application was refused, the 
Pope preferring to enfeoff the king in the lands of America and reserve 
the vectigals, which were payable in cash, for himself. Higgins, 



222 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Anacal., II, 393. This and like reservations may have had no little 
to do with promoting the Reformation of 15 17, q. v. 

A. D. 1492, America. — Columbus, Cortes, Cabesa de Vaca and 
other of the Spanish conquistadores were guilty of the grave im- 
posture of assuming either that they themselves, or their master, 
Charles I., of Spain, was that Messiah whom the Indians of the An- 
tilles, Mexico and Florida all believed would soon make his appear- 
ance on earth. They were worshipped by the natives in so ample a 
manner that all the rights of property fell before their presence. 
The Indians who guided Cabesa de Vaca did not take him to un- 
friendly tribes, because they were unwilling that their enemies should 
enjoy so great an advantage as to behold this divinity. Even when 
the Spaniards despoiled them, the natives begged their visitors not 
to distress themselves about it, assuring them that they held the loss 
of their goods as naught compared with the pleasure of having be- 
held them. So the Spaniards moved on in the accepted character of 
Children of the Sun, who had power to confer or take away life and 
from whom nothing could be concealed because everything was 
known to them. Until their real character was disclosed by their 
repeated crimes, the natives never stood before them without trem- 
bling and did not dare to speak or to lift up their eyes. The Span- 
iards kept up this imposture by assuming great state and gravity with 
them and by speaking but seldom. Sir Francis Drake practiced a 
similar imposture upon the natives of California. Some writers haye 
assumed that what the Indians worshipped was not a Messiah, but 
strength, power, splendour, superior craft, the guns, the horses, the 
armor, the glittering trappings and brave array of the Spaniards ; 
while others have ascribed it to the Spaniards' knowledge of letters, 
medicine, etc. ; but these theories will not account for the explicit 
declarations on this subject which were made by Montezuma and 
conveyed by Cortes in his letters to the King of Spain. Consult 
Helps' Conquerors of America, vols. II and IV; Irving's " Colum- 
bus, "passim; Naufragios de Cabesa de Vaca, c. 31; and U. S. Miner- 
ological Rep., 1867, p. 271. 

A. D. 1497, India. — Vasco de Gama opens the sea route to In- 
dia, China and Japan. This brought to Europe some knowledge of 
Indian literature and astrology, which was not without its influence 
in stimulating that resistance to the claims and exactions of the 
Latin papal See which formed the distinguishing event of the ensu- 
ing half century. 

A. D. 1503, India. — Brahminical Divine Year, Augustan date. 



jEras. 223 

To make the true date, deduct the 78 years sunk by Augustus. (See 
ch. IX.) The Hindu date is A. D. 1425. (Table A). 

A. D, 1504, Peru. — Approximate sera of Viracocha, the Messiah, 
who was due on earth during the reign of the twelfth Inca, Huayna 
Capac, who died in 1525. Pizzarro grimly announced himself as the 
Lieutenant of the expected Messiah and as such he was actually 
venerated by the confiding and deluded natives, whose king he had 
betrayed and murdered in cold blood. Garcillaso de la Vega; Pres- 
cott's Peru, I, 325, 330, 437. 

A. D. 1510, Calicut. — In this year Alfonso Alboquerque, a 
Portuguese naval commander made his appearance off Calicut, or 
Kolikod, a seaport of Malabar, 560 m. south of Bombay, and cap- 
tured and plundered the city. The sovereign of Calicut was called 
by the Moplahs (a mixed race of Arabians and Brahmins) their 
Isamorin, corrupted to Zamorin, whom they worshipped as sovereign- 
pontiff and God upon Earth. He was suzerain to the kings of 
Cochin, Canamor and Coulao, none of whom could coin money with- 
out his authority. He appears to have descended from a line of Isa- 
morins whose epoch went back to the ninth century of our sera. 

A. D. 1517, Europe. — On the eve of All Saints Day, the 31st of --K- 
October, 1517, Martin Luther, a Saxon monk of the Augustine order, 
nailed to the door of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg on the Elbe, 
his " Ninety-five Theses " denouncing the sale of indulgences by the 
See of Rome. This action is commonly taken to mark the begin- 
ning of the Protestant Reformation. But, in fact, the protest and 
movement against Papal simony began long before. It is much 
more convincingly condemned in the pages of Matthew Paris than in 
those of Martin Luther. However, in Matthew's time (13th century) 
the movement received no popular support. The people were so 
poor and miserable that they could only suffer. In the early part of 
the 15th century, when John Huss dared to brave the resentment of 
Rome, by denouncing its encouragement of religious imposture and its 
simoniacal practices, the populace, though in sympathy with its cham- 
pion, shrank from his support and saw him burned at the stake with- 
out an attempt at rescue. But in Luther's time the case was different. 
A new world had been discovered, the cosmogony of the Church had 
proved to be false and its authority was much shaken. America had 
yielded during the first 25 years of its despoilment more gold and silver 
than Europe had possessed in coin and plate previous to the Discovery. 
This metal had been hastily coined and thrown into the circulation, 
first of Spain and afterwards of France, England and Germany. The 

*^ ^c.t *--» -. ._. .„;.. 



224 A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

resulting Rise of Prices threw all Europe into a ferment; a condition 
of affairs which afforded very substantial support to Luther's stand 
against the Church. ("Halcyon Age," p. 14). 

A. D. 1524, Europe, — Year of the predicted recurrence of the 
biblical deluge and destruction of mankind. To avert this ca- 
lamity floating arks were built by many persons, among others by 
President Aurial of Toulouse, who expected to be stranded on the 
Puy de Dome ; but the cataclysm failed to occur and indeed the sea- 
son turned out to be unusually dry. Haydn, Die. Dates, art. " Del- 
uge." Encyc. Brit, art. "Astrology." In the Miller's Tale of 
Chaucer, A. D. 1340- 1400, something of the sort is related of an 
earlier period. 

A. D. 1534, England. — April 21, (Palalia). Execution of Eliza- 
beth Barton, the "Holy Maid of Kent." She was born in Aldington, 
Kent, about the beginning of the century, became a nun, and saw visions 
in which were revealed to her many forecasts of future events, some 
of them of a partly political character, as the consequences of the 
divorce of Henry VIII. from Catherine of Aragon. Her parish 
priest, Richard Masters, and Dr. Bockling, a canon of Canterbury, 
regarded these as divine revelations. The chapel at Aldington be- 
came the centre of numerous pilgrimages and of many excited and 
tumultuous assemblages. Elizabeth's visions multiplied. She re- 
ceived letters written in gold by Mary Magdalene. The emissaries 
of the Pope of Rome and the partisans of Queen Catherine encour- 
aged these delusions. Even such men as Sir Thomas More, Johm 
Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, 
lent their support to her ravings. In -1533, the king ordered her to 
be examined before Parliament, who found her guilty of treason, and 
in 1534 ordered her to the block. 

A. D, 1555, Bengal, — Ilali sera, according to some authors. 

A. D, 1556, Bengal. — Ilali, Ilahi, or Bengalee San of Akbar, a 
solar sera and calendar dating from the deification and first regnal 
year of Akbar in 1556, but not established until 1584. The apothe- 
osis of Akbar is discussed by Col. Van Kennedy in Bombay Trans., 
II, 242, and Higgins, II, 354. His sera commenced on lesaac, or 
Bysaac ist, which coincided with the entrance of the Sun into Aries. 
The month of Cheyt, or Chittere, began with Pisces and so on through 
the calendar, each of the twelve months beginning with a different 
zodion, in the customary Greek order of rotation. According to the 
Pandits' "Chron.," Ak bar's reign began on Rubi-us-sani 2nd, A. H. 
963, or February 14th, A. D. 1556, which those writers regard as the 



^RAS. 225 

true epoch of the Tarikh Ilali, or Bengalee San. This is also the date 
adopted by Sewell and by Cunningham. Amir Fatteh Ul-lah Shirazi, 
who corrected the calendar from the time of Ulugh Beg to Akbar, 
says Friday, Rubi-us-sani 5, A. H. 963, or February 19, 1556, N. S. 
Here is a difference of three days and a discrepancy of five days. 
The Pandits, in another place, also Poole, both say that the Ilali 
began on the vernal equinox; whilst the Pandits, in still another 
place, say April 11, 1556. These last named dates appear to be er- 
roneous. The names of the Ilali months are the same as the ancient 
Persian. Most of them have either 29 or 30 days, although some 
have 32. There are no septuary divisions. The Ilali sera is used on 
the coins, inscriptions and records of the reigns of Akbar, Jehangir 
and other sovereigns. In the reign of Jehangir and in subsequent 
reigns the Ilali date was usually coupled with that of the Hegira. 
From Timur to Akbar the principal seras in use were the Hegira, A. D. 
622, the Turki, B. C. 5054, and the Julal-ad-din, A. D, 1075, or 1079. 
To these Akbar added the Bengalee San, A. D. 1556, the Fasali sera, 
A. D. 592, and the Vilayati,Vilaity, Amli, or Dakhani sera, A. D. 592-3. 

A. D. 1564, France. — New Year day changed by edict of Charles 
IX., from March 25 to January i. See 1582. 

A. D. 1580, Holland. — Aera of the Dutch Republic. Declara- 
tion of Independence and foundation of the Seven United Provin- 
ces, September 29. The Roman names of the months were changed 
to others, which, like those of the Goths, were descriptive of the 
seasons, but they have since become obsolete. The same fate after- 
wards befell the months of the French Republic. 

The following dates are connected with the Revolution: 1524 and, 
1546, capricious monetary laws of Charles V., causing widespread 
commercial distress ; 1566, Confederation of Beggars ; 1572, Resort 
to arms ; 1574, papermoney issued at Leyden ; 1576, Sack of Mechlin 
and Antwerp by the Spaniards; 1576, November 8, Treaty of Ghent; 
1579, January 29, Union of Utrecht ; 1580, Establishment of the 
Republic. 

A. D. 1582, Rome. — Institution of the Gregorian calendar, 
which required that October 5, 1582, should be counted as October 
15, thus altering and correcting the Julian (Caesarian) calendar, ten 
days. This alteration was soon afterwards officially adopted in the 
Roman Catholic states, to the destruction of the Csesarian aera. By 
the Protestant states of Germany it was adopted partly in 1700, and 
partly in 1774, and by Great Britain and her Colonies (including 
British America) in September, 1752, when the third of that month 



,226 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

was called the 14th, These eleven days constitute one difference 
between O. S. and N. S. Another, arises from the fact that with 
the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, the New Year Day was 
changed from March 25th backward to the previous January ist. 
Events which occured between these dates were at first assigned to 
both: e.g., the English Revolution of 1688, (William and Mary) 
which occurred in February of that legal year, was for a time dated 
February 1688-9. We now say February, 1689. Russia, although 
she has adopted the Christian year, still employs the Julian day, be- 
tween which and the Gregorian reckoning there is now a difference 
of 12 days. The origin of the difference was in Julius Caesar's 
assumption that the solar year consisted of exactly 365^ days, 
which is not the fact. Neither is the Gregorian mean year of 365d. 
5h. 49m. I2S. quite correct, the latest and most exact determination 
of astronomers being 365d. 5h. 48m. 46s. (Newcomb). Neverthe- 
less at the date of it'adoption, the Gregorian year was supposed to 
be correct. See A. D. 1564. 

A.D.I 600, Europe. — Epoch January ist (Gregorian) the"yEra 
of Man," as employed by the modern Reformers, Agnostics, Free- 
thinkers, etc., of Europe and America, many of whose periodicals 
employ this one as well as the Christian sera. Its inventor was 
Thaddeus B. Wakeman, Esq., of New York, who, in a brief 
memoir on the subject explains that the first year of the sera ter- 
minated January ist, 1601, and that it marks the introduction of 
the Copernican system of astronomy, "which put an end to the 
previous geocentric fallacies and sounded the knell of its attendant 
ignorance and superstition. It was also the year, February 17, 1600, 
when Bruno sealed with his life his devotion to the new truth." 
This sera likewise marks the Halcyon Age of Europe, when most of 
the great discoveries and improvements in science, legislation, art, 
and mechanics, which have distinguished the subsequent period, 
had their origin. For a detailed account of these discoveries and 
improvements, consult Del Mar's "Halcyon Age." 

A. D. 1611,Japaii. — Rising against the Portugese in Japan during 
the shogunate of lyeyasu, whose posthumous title was Gongen. In 
1542 two Portugese were wrecked on the coast of Japan; in 1545 
Mendez Pinto, a Portugese adventurer, was driven into a Japanese 
port by stress of weather. Within a year after this event a regular 
trade was established by the Portuguese between Ningpo and Naga- 
saki. Trading was succeeded by mining and mining, by the ascend- 
ancy of the Portugese and the practical enslavement of the natives. 



^RAS. 227 

The Portugese having discovered a great resemblance between the 
institutes and forms of Buddhism and Christianity conceived the 
plan of usurping the government through the agency of religion. 
Affecting to believe that Christ and Buddha were the same, they as- 
serted that the period of his re-appearance was drawing nigh. 
**The very idols of Buddha served after a little alteration with the 
chisel for images of Christ." (Griffis.) They made converts of 
Bingo and other discontented daimios and employed them to be- 
tray and enslave their countrymen. Okubo, the converted gov- 
ernor of Sado, was promised by the Portuguese to be made heredi- 
itary emperor. " Fire and sword, as well as preaching, were employed 
as instruments of conversion." (Griffis.) By these nefarious means 
they rapidly made a million of "communicants," including military 
leaders, officers of the fleet, and other persons of influence. Document- 
ary proof of their treacherous designs having reached the Shogun, 
measures were taken to defeat them. The ringleaders were arrested 
and their followers proceeded against. In the four years of civil war 
which ensued, more than one hundred thousand lives were sacrificed. 
By the year 1615, the "communicants" were all suppressed, and in 
1624 the last of the Portuguese were driven from the kingdom. One 
of the consequences of these events was the renunciation of the 
Buddhic and a reversion to the more ancient Shinto religion, by vast 
numbers of Japanese. Griffis, " Mikado's Empire;" Encyc. Brit., 
art. "Japan." 

A, D. 1648, England. — ^ra of the Commonwealth, which is 
usually dated from the flight of the king, Charles!., and the assump- 
tion of administrative powers by the Parliament. The following 
dates relate to this period: Oliver Cromwell born, 1599; memberfor 
Huntingdon, 1628; for Cambridge, 1640; rupture between parlia- 
ment and king, when Cromwell is appointed captain in pari, army, 
1642; lieut. -general, 1644; battle of Naseby, 1645; he returns to 
pari., 1646; pari, army enters London and flight of king, 1647; pari, 
assumes government, 1648; king beheaded, January 30, 1649; Crom- 
well, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, concludes brief campaign in 
that country and returns to London, 1650; Charles II. lands in Scot- 
land, 1650; Cromwell's victories at Dunbar, 1650 and Worcester, 
1651, cause Charles' flight to France, 1651; Cromwell forcibly dis- 
solves Long Pari, and is invested in Westminster Hall as Lord Pro- 
tector, 1653; domestic tranquility and vigorous foreign policy, 
marked by great advance in British naval power, 1654-5; new pari., 
1656; Cromwell dies, 1658; succeeded by Richard Cromwell, who i& 



228 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

deserted by Monk, the commanding general of his forces. The lat- 
ter invites Charles II. to return to England. Entry of the king into 
London and Restoration of the monarchy May 2, 1660. 

A. D. 1650, Tibet. — Incarnation of Nag-wan Lo-zang, Waddell. 

A. D. 1653, Brazil. — Pretended divinity of an Indian chieftain 
on the Orellana, who set himself up for the Fish-god, and as such 
was worshipped by his tribe. These people, or else others near them, 
wore jade ornaments, practised circumcision and the tonsure, affirmed 
the metempsychosis, etc. They were first encountered during 
D'Acunha's survey of the Orellana (Amazon) in 1639, when the Fish- 
god was invited into the camp of Commander Teixeira. Southey's 
Hist. Brazil, I, xviii, pp. 590-621, ed. 1810. 

A. D. 1656, Begapoor. — Jaloos san, an sera established by Adil 
Shah II. The Pandits' "Chron." 

A. D. 1664, Konkan. — Raj-Abhishek reraof Sivaji (Sevajee) the 
celebrated Mahratta chieftain, as stamped on his coins. To get the 
Christian year, add 1664 to the coin dates. The months "probably" 
accord with the Shaka system. The Pandits' " Chron." 

A. D. 1673, India. — Rajasaka, beginning with the month of les- 
tha. Sewell. (Obsolete). 

A. D. 1747, India. — Cycles of 60 years ratified or confirmed. 
Marsden, op. cit. See analogous confirmation of the Calijoga by 
Hyder Ali, under B. C. 3102. 

A. D. 1752, Travancore. — ^ra of Martanda Varma, 28th rajah 
of Travancore. He succeeded his uncle, Nama Varma, in 1729. 
Like all the rajahs of Travancore, Martanda was a Nair, one of the 
inferior Brahminical castes. Dissatisfied with his caste, Martanda 
caused himself to be regenerated, or re-created, by the following 
ceremony, which is described by the Abbe Raynal, in his "Hist, of 
the East and West Indies," II, 85: "In 1752 he caused a Golden 
Calf to be cast which he entered into by the muzzle and came out . . . 
Since that time his edicts were all dated from the day of this glorious 
regeneration and, to the great scandal of the remainder of Hindostan, 
he was acknowledged for a Brahmin by all his Brahminical subjects." 
His full name was Vanji Martanda Varma Kulsek'hara Perumal. He 
died in 1758. 

A. D. 1752, England. — Adoption of the Gregorian calendar. 
This Year of Change had but nine months. See A. D. 1582. 

A. D. 1752, America. — British Colonies. Adoption of the Grego- 
rian calendar. This year had but nine months. See A. D. 1582 and 
England, 1752. 



iERAS. 229 

A. D. 1776, United States of America. — JEra. of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America, July 4th. This sera, 
coupled with the Christian sera, appears in all the Proclamations of 
the President. 

A. D. 1777, India. — First year of the 21st cycle of the Grahar- 
parivritti, or 90-year cyles. Pandits' " Chron.," p. xxix. This carries 
the beginning of these cycles back to Calijoga 3078, or B. C. 24. 
The epoch begins with the Hindu solar year. 

A. D. 1780, Europe, etc. — The Sun left Pisces and entered 
Aquarius. See B. C. 380. 

A. D. 1792, France. — -^ra of the Republic, Vendemaire i, or 
September 22. This sera was established November 24, 1793, and 
abolished December 31, 1805. 

A. D. 1792, England. — Appearance in London of Joanna South- 
cott, a fanatic, from Exeter, where she was born in 1750. She 
announced herself as the Woman predicted in Revelations, xii, 
" clothed with the sun . . . being with child . . . and she brought 
forth a man-child who was to rule all nations," etc. In this delusion, 
or imposture, Joanna was supported by four divines, named Whit- 
field, Wesley, Southcote and Brothers. "A disease favoured the 
delusion that she would be the mother of the promised Shiloh. She 
died December 27, 1814. In 1851 there existed in England four 
congregations professing to expect her return. " Haydn. 

A. D. 1796, India. — Vrihaspati: first year of the 84th cycle, ac- 
cording to the Surya Siddhanta. The Pandits. See B. C. 3185. 

A. D. 1804, China. — Vrihaspati: first year of the 76th Jovian 
cycle, according to the Chinese account. The Pandits. This makes 
the cycles begin with B. C. 2657, q. v. 

A. D. 1807, India. — Vrihaspati: first year of the 83rd cycle, ac- 
cording to the Telinga account. The Pandits. This makes the cycles 
begin with B. C. 3144, q. v. 

A. D. 1807, India. — Vrihaspati: first year of the 14th cycle, ac- 
cording to the Tibetan account. The Pandits. This makes the 
cycles begin with A. D. 967. See A. D. 966. 

A. D. 1825, India. — Beginning of the Fourth millenial of Para- 
surama. See Kollam cycles under A. D. 825. 

A. D. 1827, Utah. — Mormon sera, church of Latter Day Saints. 
In this year Joseph Smith found the Book of the Law which had 
fallen from heaven into Westchester County, New York. In 1830 the 
first Mormon church was organised at Kirkland, Ohio; 1844, Smith 
killed at Nauvoo, Illinois; 1848, the Mormons emigrate to Utah; 



230 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

1885, polygamy interdicted in the territory of Utah by the United 
States government. 

A. D. 1843, America. — The second coming of Jesus Christ fore- 
told in the Apocalypse of John and as computed by the Adventists 
led by William Miller and hence called Millerites. Miller was born 
in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1781 ; died in 1849. At the period when the 
second advent of Christ was expected, Miller had a following of over 
50,000 people, some of them in Philadelphia, where the present 
writer then resided. Among the Millerites were many tradesmen, 
who being led to believe in the fast approaching day of judgment, 
abandoned their warehouses stored with valuable merchandise, to the 
depredations of the unbelieving rabble, who rapidly bore away their 
contents, while the owners looked on with unconcern and apathy, 
wondering why any people should be so simple as to burden them- 
selves with goods at a time when goods could be of no further use to 
them. After the predicted day had passed without any sign from 
heaven, the deluded votaries were buoyed up with further pre- 
dictions aud postponed dates; and even at the present time there are 
said to be 15,000 or 20,000 of the sect in America still looking for 
the momentous day of the second advent. See 1898. 

A. D. 1844, Persia. — Bab aera. Mirza Ali Mahomet, or the Bab, 
(Gate) was born at Shiraz, in 181 7 or 1818 and executed at Tabriz, 
July 8, 1850. His Manifestation is dated Jemadi-ul-Ula, 5th, A.H., 
1260, May 23rd, A. D. 1844; but his sera is reckoned by his fol- 
lowers from the preceding Persian Nauroz, or New Year's day, 
Wednesday, March 20th, 1844. He claimed to be a lineal descen- 
dant of Mahomet, through Hescham, and to be the Sacred Person- 
age foretold by Jabir, one of the twelve Imams of the prophet, as 
He who would appear on earth exactly one thousand years ("equal 
to the period of Noah's prophetic mission ") after the Minor Occul- 
tation of Mahomet, the 12th Imam, which occured A. H. 260. He 
was also foretold by another one of the twelve Imams, to wit, Jafar- 
i-Sadik, who said that the promised Deliverer would appear in the 
year " 60." The Bab appeared in A. H. " 1260." The Bab's pre- 
decessor (for he had one) in the pretension of divinity, was Hazrat- 
i-Kudduz. He was a six month's child, who called himself the 
*' Lord Jesus," the " Kaim," and other titles pertaining to divinity. 
For these pretensions Hazrat was executed May 22nd, 1849. It 
was not until after this event that the Bab announced himself as the 
Holy One, the Lord of the World, etc., and he took care to per- 
petuate the title by appointing as his successor, Ezel, or Subh-i-Ezel, 



-(ERAS. 231 



the Morning of Eternity, a personage who in 1893 was still living in 
Adrianople. Nothwithstanding the tragic fate of the Bab and the exile \ 
of Ezel, the followers of the religion they founded are said to 
number at the present day between half a million and a million of per- 
sons. Browne's " History of the Bab; " Curzon's " Persia." 

A. D. 1845, India. — Deification of Ghasi Das, about this time. 
Sir Alfred Lyall, "Asiatic Studies," p. 108. 

A. D. 1845, England. — The Agapemone (Greek, "The Abode 
of Love,") was established this year at Charlinch, near Bridgewater 
Somersetshire, in pretended imitation of the Agapse of the Bacchan- 
als. The leader was a physician named Henry James Prince, born 
181 1, physician 1832, revivalist 1836. In 1845 he claimed to be an 
Incarnation of the Deity; and, attracting numerous followers, 
mostly women of property, they all lived in common and took 
public part in the perpetration of the grossest indecencies. These 
were exposed in the trial of Nottidge v. Prince, July 25th, i860. 
The sect is still in existence. Cf. "'Spiritual Wives," by Hepworth 
Dixon, 1868; Haydn's Die. Dates; Story of the Gods, vita " Nebo- 
Nazaru," p. 2. 

A. D. 1848, Europe. — A revolution broke out in France, Feb- 
ruary 23rd, 1848, the immediate cause of which was the interference 
of the government with a popular banquet and demonstration which 
had been planned for Washington's Birthday, February 22nd. The 
result of this rising was the flight of the king, Louis Philippe, to 
England, where he died shortly afterward. Meanwhile the spirit of 
revolt rapidly spread to Germany, Hungary and Italy, in all of 
which countries popular governments were erected. After a brief 
interval and chiefly through the influence of the clerical parties in 
each country, who were encouraged and actively aided by Pope 
Pius IX., the popular governments were suppressed, the leaders (this 
relates chiefly to the Italian states) were tortured and butchered, 
and the former regimes were restored. 

A. D. 1852, China. — First regnal year of Hun-seu-tseun, the 
leader of the Taiping rebellion and usurping " Emperor" of China. 
This person, who was born at Kuang-si or Quang-si about 1815, be- 
came a convert to Christianity in 1850, and as such was instigated 
to overthrow the established government and open the country to 
the benefits of a superior civilization. However, he took a some- 
what more independent attitude than had been intended by his 
mentors. He announced himself as a descendant of the last em- 



232 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

peror of the Ming, or only legitimate dynasty, the "restorer of the 
worship of the true god, Shang-ti, .... the brother of Jesus 
and the second Son of God." Beside the name of Hun-seu-tseun, 
he assumed that of Tien-teh, or Celestial Virtue, Tien-wang, or 
Celestial King and many others. Haydn. In 1852 he captured 
Nanking and issued silver coins with the legend, " Sacred Money of 
the Tai-ping. " During the next few years he acquired virtual con- 
trol of the Yang-tse-kiang Valley and was materially assisted in his 
design of conquest by the attitude of the European powers. In 1857 
England declared war against China and captured Canton; in 1858 
the Taku forts were taken. France also declared war against China and 
in i860 Peking was captured and looted. Harassed by internal foes 
and threatened with overthrow by foreigners, China was induced to 
sign the Elgin Treaty and pay an indemnity of eight million taels, 
about eleven million dollars. The Imperial army, which had lately 
been drilled by the American colonel Ward, was now placed under 
the English colonel Charles G. Gordon. In June, 1864, the im- 
perial forces led by Gordon besieged Nanking; on June 30th, Hun- 
seu-tseun committed suicide; and a few days afterward Nanking fell 
and, with it, the Taiping rebellion. Gordon himself died in the de- 
fense of Khartoum (Egypt) January 26, 1885. 

A. D. 1868, England. — Advent of Mrs. Girling, who claimed to 
be "the Bride of Christ," and as such to be immortal. She led a 
community of Shakers, which survived until 1885; their immortal 
leader dying in 1895. The date of the advent is uncertain. 

A. D. 1868, Japan. — ^ra of Meiji, when the hierarchy and 
feudalism both came to an end. The Nengo, or aera, of Meiji was 
originally in A. D. 1867. In the 5th year of Meiji, 1872, the Jap- 
anese government abrogated its lunar calendar and adopted the 
Gregorian system. In that year the 2nd day of the 12th month fell 
on December 31st. The remainder of the Japanese month was 
dropped from the calendar and the following day, or January ist, 
1873, was reckoned the first day, of the first month, of the sixth year, 
of Meiji. Wm. Bramsen, "Jap. Chronology," 1880. 

A. D. 1870, Italy. — September 20th. Capture of Rome by the 
Sardinian forces, followed October 9th, by a Royal decree declaring 
that " Rome and the Roman provinces shall constitute an integral 
part of the Kingdom of Italy." This decree had the effect to ab- 
sorb the dominions and terminate the temporal power of the Latin 
Papacy, whose foundations had been laid by Pepin the Short, so 
long ago as A. D. 752. In 1S50 the Siccardi bill, abolishing exter- 



^RAS. 233 

nal ecclesiastical jurisdiction, had passed the Sardinian Chambers, 
and in 1861 (the second period of Garibaldi's activity) this law was 
extended to the whole kingdom of Italy; so that the termination of 
the temporal power in 1870 was not unheralded. Upon the facade 
of an enormous theatre which is now (1898) being erected at Co- 
senza, in Calabria, is graven this inscription, " September 20, 1870, 
This political date marks the end of Theocracy in civil life. The 
Day which terminates its moral rule will be the Epoch of Humanity," 
— ' * sara la data umana. " London Daily Chronicle, May, 1898. 

A. D. 1872, Punjab. — Deification of Ram Singh. Lyall, op. cit. 

A. D. 1883, Soudan. — Manifestation of Mahomet Ahmed. It 
being a widespread belief among Mahometans that the Mahdi will 
appear at the close of some century from the Flight, advantage 
was taken of it by this impostor, in the year A. H. 1300 or A. D. 
1882-3, to raise the standard of a holy war in the Soudan. The ter- 
rible fate of the brave but misguided Arabians who followed the 
Mahdi is related under A. D. 1898. The burial place of the Mahdi 
was obliterated by General Kitchener in 1899. 

A. D. 1895, India. — Period when the reincarnation of Dionysius, 
les Chrishna, Salivahana, or Vicramaditya, was due. Greek sign of 
the Archer, the Indian Dhanaus. From this time forward was to 
begin a New Age. This belief threw the whole of India into a state 
of excitement and unrest. 

A. D. 1895, Punjab. — Manifestation of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, 
who signed himself " Chief of Qadian, Gurdaspur District, Panjab. " 
This personage pretended to be a prophet and messenger of God. 
A letter written by him in Pali was translated into English, published 
in 1S86 or 1887, and addressed to the ministers of religion "every- 
where." It offered to forfeit to them 200 rupees a month if he, 
Mirza, failed to perform miracles in proof of his divine mission. A 
further proclamation from him in English and signed as above, with 
the date of March 23rd, 1894, the original of which is before the 
writer, offered to forfeit 5,000 rupees to any one who should write 
"an Arabic book equal to mine in beauty of language and size. " 
His own composition (in Arabic and Urdu) is entitled " Nurr-ul- 
Haqq, " (Divine Light). His pretensions were similar to those of the 
Bab (see A. D. 1844) and, like the Bab's, they were based on the 
Koran. However, his sera, or the date of his Manifestation, were 
evidently based upon the Hindu sera of Salivahana B. C. 78 ; for the 
year 1895 ^^ exactly three Divine Years, of 658 years each, after that 
date. 



234 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

A. D. 1895, Messiahs. — Appearance in the United States of 
Francis Schlatter and several other German fanatics, who pretended 
to be in communication with the Deity and to work cures or mira- 
cles. A similar pretender named Antonio appeared in Brazil and 
had numerous followers. Other persons of similar pretensions ap- 
peared in the same year, one each in India, Tibet, Sicily, Mexico, 
and Mashonaland, South Africa. The personage last alluded to 
was named Ka-goo-bie, or Gumbar-ish-amba, who called himself the 
M'lenga, or the Deity and who instigated the Mashona war of 1895-96. 
A full length portrait of this "manifestation" (evidently from a 
photo) was published in the Illustrated London Graphic of Decem- 
ber 25th 1897. 

The following account of Schlatter's death is from the New York 
Sun of June loth, 1897: 

El Paso, Texas, June 6th, 1897. — A week ago on last Friday two American mine 
prospectors found in the foot hills of the Sierre Madre on the Puentas Verdas River, 
thirty-five miles southwest of Casa Grande, in the State of Chihuahua, all that re- 
mained of Francis Schlatter, the " Divine Healer." The prospectors' attention was 
attracted to his " camp " by espying a saddle astride a limb in a dead tree high up in 
a gorge through which the river runs. Schlatter's skeleton was found lying stretched 
out on a blanket close up to the tree. His bones were bleached white, and along- 
side was a copper rod and a miniature baseball bat. 

Piled up beside the trunk of the tree were saddlebags, a large memorandum book, 
a package of letters bound by a rubber band, some blankets, and six suits of under- 
wear. A Bible and a canteen were in the pile, and a canteen half full of water. The 
saddle ropes and some extra clothing were directly over the skeleton on a limb of the 
tree. In a knot hole in the tree were found needle, thread and buttons. In the in- 
side cover of the Bible was inscribed the name " Francis Schlatter." Under this were 
two verses in prayer, followed by the signature "Clarence J. Clark, Denver, Col." 
There were no signs of violence, and the prospectors believe that Schlatter died of 
self-imposed starvation, as there were no cooking utensils of any kind in camp. 

The Jefe Politico at Casa Grande was notified on May 30, and on June 2 the skele- 
ton and effects were brought to that village, where the authorities hold them awaiting 
a claimant. Casa Grande is situated fifteen miles from the present terminal of the 
Rio Grande, Sierre Madre and Pacific Railway — a new line for the past year under 
construction from this city to Casa Grande. Americans at Casa Grande examined the 
letters and other effects and pronounced them undoubtedly those of Schlatter. An 
Indian informed the authorities that several months ago he came upon a gray horse 
in the neighborhood where the camp was found. The horse was hobbled. A Mor- 
mon cowboy said that during the month of November last Schlatter rode up to his 
camp, fifty miles west of Casa Grande, on a gray horse. He was unarmed, carried 
no provisions or cooking utensils, refused to eat anything, and said he was fasting. 
The cowboy said his visitor seemed strange and preoccupied, and during the few 
hours at his camp, cured the cowboy's horse of a swelling on the back and forelegs by 
rubbing his hands over them. He identified the saddle at Casa Grande as that of his 
visitor in November. It bears the mark of a Denver manufacturer. 

Francis Schlatter, three years ago, was a shoe-cobbler in Denver, and earned a 
precarious living at his trade. He began to hear " silent " voices, as he said, and in 
obedience to their commands gave away his tools and began a pilgrimage toward the 
Pacific coast, He was arrested several times as a vagrant and thrown into jail. He 
footed the entire distance to California and returned to New Mexico, where he was 
heard of among the Indians as the Messiah. The newspaper reporters discovered 
that he was followed by mobs of Indians who worshipped him and that he cured the 
sick by touching the afflicted with his hands. He fasted for forty days, labouring con- 



^RAS. 235 

tinuously, and went to Denver, where he was besieged daily by immense throngs of 
people from all parts of the country. When some persons were arrested for selling 
handkerchiefs blessed by him, and against whom he was summoned as a witness,^ he 
suddenly disappeared. He was soon afterward found in New Mexico, travelling 
through the most uninhabited parts, going southward. He was last seen in the 
United States, by cowboys near Lordsburg, nine months ago, going toward the Mexi- 
can line. 

A. D. 1895, Tibet. — Re-incarnation of Mina Fu-yeh. Wellby's 
** Through Unknown Tibet" 1898. This re-incarnated Buddha 
seems to have possessed a genuine charm of character and fascina- 
tion of manner. Captain Wellby really liked him: 

"His explanation of how he came to be recognised as the re-incarnation of the 
previous Mina Fu-yeh shows how convincing the proofs of identity are to one who 
has been brought up to accept and believe in the theory. He relates how, when very 
small, various articles were laid out, from which he was to select those which had been 
his own in his previous life-time. Among these was a number of rosaries, from which 
he had no difficulty in choosing his own. 'For,' he says, ' I had used it daily for 
years ; how is it possible that I should not know it from among all the others ? Of 
course I knew it.' So on with other articles; his own identity was established without 
a doubt ; and he became heir to the accumulated property of fifteen former life-times. 
He talks freely of his last life-time, pointing out the site of the house in which he 
lived, and which was burnt down about two years before his death; it was, he says, a 
far finer house than the one he now occupies." 

When he was not praying or writing or reading, the Buddha was 

quite willing to make himself useful. 

"But early as we were, our host was before us, and when we left our room we 
found him making preparations for breakfast. He explained that his steward and 
several of his sen'^ants were away, so he had to do a great deal himself. It seemed 
strange to see an incarnate saint, who is held in the deepest reverence and worshipped 
by men, busying himself unlocking drawers, producing sugar and butter, and gener- 
ally attending to the most trivial and mundane matters, chattering away all the time 
like an ordinary mortal." 

A. D. 1897, Kiao Chao. — Seizure of Kiao Chao, China, by the 
German forces, whose commander issued a proclamation dated "14th 
November, A. D, 1897, or the 21st day, nth moon, 23rd year of 
(the emperor) Huang Tsu, Chinese Reckoning." London "Chron- 
icle," January 6th, 1898. This makes the first year of Huang Tseu 
agree with A. D. 1875. 

A. D. 1897, Austria. — In May, 1897, in the northern part of 
the Bukovina, near Gallicia, the peasant population was greatly ex- 
cited by an eighteen-year-old prophetess named Jaryna Jeryernkowna. 
The girl declared that she died and was buried four years ago, and 
went to heaven, and was sent by God to redeem mankind. Despite 
the parish priest's protests a procession was arranged, and hundreds 
followed her to the Church of Szerowce, where she prayed aloud and 
delivered a sermon. The Mayor and councillors were convinced of 
the girl's heavenly mission. The prophetess and the attendant crowds 
then made their way to Stara Zuczka, where she delivered another 



236 A NEW CHRONOLOGY, 

sermon in the church. At Sadagora, a number of gendarmes, after 
a violent scuffle with the excited crowd, arrested the girl, and com- 
mitted her to prison. London "Chronicle," May 26, 1897. 

A. D. 1898, Arabia. — September 3. "Battle " of Omdurman, at 
which 12,000 to 15,000 Arabians, under the leadership of the Kha- 
lifa Abdullah, successor to the Mahdi, or Messiah, were slaughtered 
by the British and Egyptian forces under Gen. Kitchener. Said 
G. W. Stevens, correspondent of the London Daily Mail : 

' ' It was not a battle but an execution. . . . The Dervishes were not driven 
back ; they were all killed in coming on. . . . The bodies were not in heaps ; they 
spread evenly over acres and acres. . . . The honour of the fight must go with 
the men who died. Our men were perfect but the Dervishes were superb — beyond 
perfection. . . . Their riflemen, mangled by every kind of death and torment that 
man can devise, clung round the Black Flag and the Green, dauntlessly emptying their 
poor rotten home-made cartridges. . . , The last Dervish stood up and filled his 
chest ; he shouted the name of his God and hurled his spear ; then toppled with his 
face to his conquerors." The Khalifa escaped to the White Nile. 

A. D. 1898, England. — Easter day. End of the Gentile times, 
to be followed by the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to 
the Second Adventists. "If our predictions fall, the Sun will fall 
with us. ... The Gentile times end (Luke xxi, 24,) on the 20th 
of March, 1898, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon." London "Past and 
Future," February 2, 1898, p. 71. See A. D. 1843. 

A. D. 1908, England. — Beginning of the thousand years, at the 

termination of which, the world will be destroyed. Rev. M. P. 

Baxter. 

"On Thursday, June 9th, 1898, a meeting of the Court of Common Council was 
held at Guildhall, the Lord Mayor presiding. On the recommendation of the City 
Lands Committee, it was resolved that on the Rev. M. P. Baxter surrendering his 
present lease of premises in Tudor Street, a building lease be granted to him for 
eighty years, from midsummer next, at ground-rents varying from £qo to ^^424 per 
annum. When his petition was before the court it was elicited that the lessee was the 
gentleman who recently predicted the immediate end of the world. The Prophet, how- 
ever, has since written to explain that the end of the world, in the sense of the general 
conflagration, will not take place until the termination of 1,000 years from Easter, 
1908." London Weekly Times and Echo, June 12, 1898. 

A. D. 1928, England. — End of the thousand years when (on 
Easter Day) the world will be destroyed; the next Millenium of the 
Second Adventists. "Past and Future," 1898, p. 70. 



237 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CYCLES. 

THE author has endeavoured to bring together in this chapter all 
the cycles, whether astronomical, astrological, or civil, which 
have come under his notice during several years of study. They are 
arranged in the order of their duration, beginning with one day and 
ending with 240 million years, one of those vast eons of time, if 
we may use such an expression with propriety, which practically re- 
presents eternity and which could only have emanated from peoples 
who believed in the immortality of the soul. Among these were the 
Indians, Egyptians, Chaldeans and Greeks. The Chinese had no such 
vast ages; neither had the Jews, nor the Romans: the Chinese cos- 
mic cycle — an unique instance — being probably of Hindu origin and 
modern invention or adoption. 



1 day. — The period of the earth's revolution on its axis consti- 
tutes the most perfect measure of time. The time occupied in this 
movement is called a day. 

7 day 'week, or the Hebdomadal cycle. This is not a natural, 
that is to say, an astronomical cycle, but an artificial one. It is not 
exactly, but only roughly, the fourth part 01 a lunar month, which 
consists of about 29^^ days. The seven-day wake, or week, might 
possibly have been employed by primitive tribes before any solar 
calendar was in use; though of such a circumstance no record sur- 
vives : the ' ' Accadian " and Chaldean evidence on this point being un- 
satisfactory. The seven-day week had no existence during the many 
centuries when time was reckoned by solar years of ten civil months. 
Its present observance as a day of rest has not been traced further 
backward than the adoption of a twelve months year, which occured 
during the second Buddhic period. Even during that period it was 
not used by the Greeks or Romans until those peoples adopted the 
Dionysian cult. On this point we have the explicit testimony of 
Dion Cassius, who, writing about A. D. 229, says of the septuary 
week: " It is not very long since this custom was introduced by the 



238 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Egyptians to other nations; for I believe the ancient Greeks had no 
knowledge of it." The Rev. Dr. Hales, who could not refute the 
innumerable evidences that the Romans observed a week of nine days, 
nundinoe, said, in his Chronology I, 19, that the gentiles "dropped" 
the seventh day; the Greek gentiles observing the tenth day and the 
Roman gentiles the ninth. This is disingenuous and might be mis- 
leading. The gentile Greeks never observed the seventh day ; neither 
did the gentile Romans; therefore they did not " drop " it. Dion 
Cassius says (xxxvii, 18, or Xiphilinus Abridg. pp. 14, 15) that the 
days of the septuary week were named by the Egyptians after the 
seven planets, the Egyptians being the " first authors of it ;" that 
the Romans and other nations now employ this week; that the first 
day is Saturn's day, which the Jews celebrate as a holiday, upon 
which they abstain from work; that the order of the days among the 
Egyptians runs as i, Saturn; 2, Jupiter; 3, Mars; 4, Sun; 5, Venus; 

6, Mercury, and 7, Moon; or, as they are now named, i, Saturday; 
2, Thursday; 3, Tuesday; 4, Sunday; 5, Friday; 6, Wednesday; and 

7, Monday. Although he does not give the order of the days in 
Rome, it is quite evident from what he does say that it was not the 
Egyptian order, but the Buddhic, or Dionysian order. He says that 
the first day was Saturday and that the fourth or middle day, like the 
fourth string in the musical scale, was the foundation of the system; 
"so that," to use his own words, "it will be found that the heavens 
rule the days with a harmony which is analogous to that of music." 
This influential middle or mess-day, (Gothic, mid-wik,) originally 
Sun-day, was subsequently named after Dionysius, the Roman Mer- 
curius, from whom the fourth day of the.septimana still takes its name, 
as in the French Mercredi, the Spanish Miercoles, and the English 
Wednesday; because there was no such messianic influence over the 
other days nor no such name of mess, mid, medial, or mediator, ascribed 
to any other god except Dionysius. As to Dion's belief that the Egyp- 
tians were the first authors of the septuary week, or the first to give 
these names to the days, though there is no reason to doubt its sincer- 
ity, it is evidently a mistake. The Hindu and perhaps even the Scyth- 
ian septuary week appears to be older: in short, both the astronomy 
and the astrology of the Seven days, like that of the Seven asterisms, 
are Oriental. ApoUonius of Tyana found the septimana, or septu- 
ary week, in use in India, when he visited it about A. D. 45 ; (Philos- 
tratus, in vita. III, xiii, 148, A) ; and the names then given to the 
days were probably those which we find in the Codeof Manou to-day, 
though in this place they are of comparatively modern insertion. 



CYCLES. 239 

They are as follows: Rabi-var, Som-var, Mangal-var, Buddh-var, 
Vrishpat-var, Gurn-var, Shukra-var and Sani-var. In fact the septu- 
ary week is probably several centuries earlier than Apollonius and 
many centuries later than Manu. 

9 day week. — An artificial cycle : precisely the fourth part of 
the 36-day civil month in the lo-months' solar year. This cycle was 
called nundinum by the Romans and is still preserved in the novenas 
of the Italians, which occur in their church festivals and ceremonies. 
On the ninth day the temples were thrown open for public worship. 
The peasants improved the occasion to fetch their farm produce and 
home-made wares into the cities and expose them for sale within the en- 
closures of the temples, which were thus converted into fairs. For 
this privilege they paid a tax to the temples. This custom still sur- 
vives in the smaller towns of France, Germany and other continental 
states, though now the fair-day is the first of the cycle of seven, 
instead of, as formerly, the last of the cycle of nine. Nor is there 
now any tax. The first day of the nundinum was called prima- 
feria, the second, secunda-feria, etc., whence we have the word fair. 
Sunday fairs, a relic of the ancient custom, were only abolished in 
England by the act of June loth, 1850. Townsend. 

10 days. — The Greek cycle of 10 days is sufficiently noticed 
under a previous head. The days of the Chinese lo-day cycle are 
named Kia, Yih, Ping, Ting, Wu, Ki, Keng, Sin, Jen, and Kwei. 
Gaubil, " Lettres Edifiantes," xxvi, 225, 228. The Greek custom of 
dividing the month into three decades each of ten days was revived 
by the French during the Revolution, but abolished by Napoleon I. 

30 and 31 days. — For months of 30 and 31 days, see "36 
days " and 10 and 12 months. 

36 days. — Prior to the second Buddhic period the solar year in all 
the principal states of the world was divided into ten civil months 
each of 36 days, with 5 intercalary days, or epagomenae, to make the 
equable year. The period of the change from 10 months of ^6 days 
to 12 months of 30 days, with intercalaries, is believed to have been 
as follows: India, B. C. 662 ; China, 657; Miletus, 592; Athens, 582; 
Babylon, 582; Egypt, 547 and Rome, 451. The period of the 
** Second Hermes," or second Buddha, is recognized by both Strabo 
and Diodorus. 

45 days. — There are reasons for believing that during the preva- 
lence of the earlier form of the Solar woi'ship in India, Scythia 
Assyria and Egypt, the solar year was divided into eight civil months 



240 A NEW CHRONOLOGY 

each of 45 days, with intercalaries. The Sun god was typified by a 
human figure holding an eight-spoked wheel; the Eight principal 
gods of early Egypt, to each of whom one month of the year was 
consecrated, are mentioned by Herodotus (Euterpe, 82, 145, 156); 
ancient zodiacs have been discovered which are divided into eight 
sections; while the dislocated features of the present calendar and 
the odd days set apart for certain astrological festivals, also indicate 
a remote subdivision of the year into eight parts. 

304 days. — Censorinus, (D. N. XX,) says that Philolaus reckoned 
the natural year to consist of 364^^ days; Aphrodisius, 365^; Cal- 
ippus, 365; Aristarchus of Samos, 365 1-1623; Meton, 365 5-19; 
(Enopides, 365 22-59; Harpalus, 365 13-24; and Ennius, 366 days. 
Moreover, he argues, that by the recession of Thoth ist from July 
20th to February 26th, ending with the Divine year A. D, 138, (namely, 
144 days in 576 years of the Sothiacal cycle,) the Egyptians and 
before them the Chaldeans, employed the Julian year of exactly 365^ 
days. (Other ostensibly ancient authorities to the same effect, are 
cited by Greswell, F. C, I, 74, 75, etc.) But see the 360-day and 
especially the 365)^-day cycles given below. 

After thus showing and arguing that both the Romans, Greeks, 
Egyptians and Chaldeans were very accurately acquainted with the 
length of the year in days, Censorinus informs us that in the Alban 
calendar, from which the Roman calendar descended, there were only 
ten months, with altogether 304 days, as follows : March 3 1 ; April 30 ; 
May 31; June 30; Quintilis (now July) 31 ; Sextilis (now August) 30; 
September 30; October 31; November 30; and December 30. He 
adds that when Numa, or else Tarquin, extended the year to twelve 
months, it was done by supplementing January with 29 days and 
February with 28; and that one day was taken from each of the six 
months that had had 30 days, thus making four months each of 3 1 days, 
seven months each of 29 days and one month of 28 days; total 355 
days. Finally, that an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days was added 
every two years between the last day of February and the first of 
March. 

Except as to the last sentence, this account is anachronical, con- 
, fused and defective. It has every appearance of having been tampered 
with by the custodians of the manuscript. An intercalary month, 
every two years, of 22 or 23 days, would add 1 1 J^^^ days to 355, making 
a mean year of 366^ days, which is in excess of the fact by one day. 
But this is the least. It is simply incredible that any calendar, we 



CYCLES. 241 

will not say the Roman, but even the Alban, should have reckoned 
only 304 days to the year, whether the latter was divided into ten 
months, or any other number. The merest child would not fail to 
observe that the year had many more days than 304. It is evident, 
from the confused condition into which the Roman calendar fell be- 
fore the time of Julius Csesar, as well from the lateness of the period 
when Censorinus wrote, (which was A. D. 238, or about seven cen- 
turies after the Roman year was divided into twelve months,) that 
all the details of the ancient calendars, both of Rome and Alba, 
were lost; and therefore that with respect to the number of days in 
the months, of which ten went to the year, the text offered for that 
of Censorinus, even if it has not been altered, is not to be altogether 
relied upon. But that it has been altered is the opinion of every critic 
who has examined it, 

Brady, (Clavis Cal., I, 15,) in repeating that the Alban year con- 
sisted of 304 days, furnishes the following details: April 36 days; 
May 22; March 36; June 26; Quintilis 36; Sextilis 28; September 
16; October 39; November 30; December 35 ; total 304. Here is 
one month with 35 days, three months with 36, and one month with 
39 days, besides several small and unequal months, one of which con- 
tains but 16 days. Such a calendar is preposterous. It is contradicted 
by common sense; by the Roman method of dividing the months 
into calends, nones and ides; and by the nundinse; all of which in- 
dications and features point to four intervals of nine days in each 
month; a conclusion admitted even by Hales, (I, 19,) but still denied 
by the Sacred College of Rome and its apologists. 

In order to account for a 304-day year, Greswell, F. C, I, 503, 
invents a nundinal cycle of 8 days and a lunation of 32 days, 19 of 
which imaginary lunations make 608 days, or two years of 304 days 
each ! A 304-day year is bad enough, but a 32-day moon and an 8-day 
week are still worse. There is neither astronomical nor historical 
foundation for any of them. A lo-months' lunar year is simply im- 
possible. Whenever the year was thus divided the calendar must 
have been a solar one. 

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, in his " Astronomy of the Ancients," 
London, 1862, examined this matter with great care. He showed that 
Macrobius, I, xii, 39, Scaliger, de Emend. Temp., ii, p. 172, ed. 1629, 
and Dodwell, all rejected the 304-day year as preposterous; and to 
the opinion of these chronologists he adds his own, which is that 
the 304-day year is impossible. Moreover, he contends that both the 
Greeks before Solon and the Romans before Numa, had a 36o.day 



242 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

year. Finally, he shows, upon numerous ancient testimonies, that the 
Greek and Roman years were full years and that they were divided 
into ten months. Yet he shrinks from expressing the very palpable 
conclusion that if the years were full and had 365, or even 360 days 
and there were but ten months, the latter must have consisted of 36 
days each. The nundinum or week of nine days should have taught 
him better; but his superstition was evidently stronger than his rea- 
son. After labouring to prove with Greswell that a nundinum meant 
eight days, he declares himself unable to harmonise the conflicting 
testimonies on the subject of the ten months' year, which he leaves 
precisely where he found it. 

The notion of a 304-day year seems to have arisen in this way: if 
12 months now contain 365 days, how many days did ten months 
anciently contain? Answer, 304 days. It was a mere arithmetical 
result; a quotient in the rule of three; having no relation to history 
and merely suggested by the desire to avoid confessing that the sep- 
tuary week is not so ancient as is pretended. The 32-day moons and 
8-day nundines of Dr. Greswell and Sir George Cornewall Lewis are 
of the same arithmetical character. Plutarch in Numa says that so 
far back as the time of that demi-god, the Roman year h^36o days. 
To these days may be added the five epagomense. The fingers of the 
statues of Janus, one of which is said to have been erected by Numa 
himself, commonly indicated the numbers 365. Pliny, XXXIV, 16; 
Macrobius, I, ix, 10; Lydus de Mens., IV, i; and Suidas. Macro- 
bius even argues. Sat., I, 13, that Numa's intercalary cycle proves 
that he knew the year to consist of 365^ days. In the face of such 
evidences, what is the value of an argument for a year of 304 days? 
Cf, Livy, I, 19; Macrobius, op. cit. ; and the 24-year cycle, herein. 

327 days. — Dr. Greswell, F. C, I, 61, assures us that "chronol- 
ogy has little to do with any revolution of the moon but the synodic. " 
This learned, but far too credulous writer, never seems to have sus- 
pected the sinister resources of lunar chronology, the cunning of the 
ancient priests, nor the significance of the Divine year. Albiruni 
explicitly informs us that the Hindus, not of his own time, but of 
some earlier age, used a year of 12 lunar revolutions, aggregating 
327 days 77^ hours. (Sachau's ed., p. 15.) This accords to each 
lunar revolution 27 d. 6h. 38m. 20s. Consequently the Hindu lunar 
month was not the synodic. It was either the sidereal of 27 days 
7h. 43m. 11.54s. or else the nodical, of 27d. 5h. 5m. 35.6s., prefer- 
ably the latter, on account of its superior amenability to intercalation 



CYCLES. 



243 



with the solar year. The nodical month as the basis of a chrono- 
logical system grafted upon the worship of the Sun, inevitably led to 
the nodical cycle, the Divine year and the Brahminical system of 
avatars or incarnations. The measurements of the nodical and sider- 
eal months given above are those of Lockyer. The ancient Hindu 
measurements probably slightly differed. 

SB4 days. — This is a lunar year, or a year of 12 lunations. The 
354-day year of Solon which followed the 360-day solar year of Athens 
was of this character. So was the year (whether instituted by Numa, or 
Tarquin, or the Decemvirs,) which probably followed immediately 
after the Roman ten months' solar year of 360 days. A lunar year of 
354 days is still used by the Hindus, Jews and Moslems. To make 
up the 11^ days (approx.) of the solar year, an intercalary month is 
added to this lunar year, at appropriate intervals. Numa is said to 
have added one day for luck and intercalated the remaining odd days 
every two years, between the 23rd and 24th of February. Pliny, N. H. , 
XXIV, 7; Livy, I, 19; Adams, "Rom. Ant." It is now tolerably 
certain that it was not Numa, but the Decemvirs, 

360 days. — A solar year of 360 days with 5 intercalaries (the 
equable year, q. v.) was in common use in many ancient states, es- 
pecially during republican periods. Whenever the nobles and ec^ 
clesiastics regained their ascendancy, they invariably altered the 
calendar to a lunar, or else to a luni-solar, year, so as to confuse the 
computation of time and render themselves the arbiters of contracts 
and sponsors of the festivals. A 360-day year was used in Babylon: 
Berosus apud Josephus, Ant. X, 11; in Egypt, Dio. Sic. XVII; and 
in Greece; Plutarch. For the epochs when this year was employed, 
see below. 

365 days. — The equable solar year. It is ascribed by Diogenes 
Laertes (Thai. § 5) to Thales (circ. B. C. 585) which may mean either 
that Thales discovered it or else that previous to that date the calendar 
of Miletus was lunar. But the authority is virtually anonymous and 
worthless. The equable year is mentioned by the Hellenicus in Plut- 
arch and by Herodotus with reference to Egypt. Censorinus says 
that the equable year was employed by Calippus in Greece B. C. 330; 
but Lindenbruch has proved that Calippus used the Julian year. 
The equable year in Greece was much earlier than Calippus. See 
chap. VII, B. C. 1219. The equable year appear^ to have been used 
in Etruria so early as the time of Procas and in Rome so late as the 
time when Cneius Flavius ordered the calendar to be affixed to the 



244 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

public buildings, about B. C. 305, and was probably used down to 
the period of Caesar's reform of the calendar. Its employment 
seems to have begun in India during the first Buddhic period and 
thence radiated to China, Chaldea, Miletus, Egypt, Greece and 
Rome. Euterpe, IV; Brady I, 15. 

The following dates are at present only to be regarded tentatively : 

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EQUABLE YEAR. 
Date B. C. Country. Authorities. 

1426 India Bailey, Laplace, et al. See Ch. VII, herein, sub anno. 

1306 India Epoch, Aswin ist. Greswell, K. H., V, 87. 

1176 Southern India Epoch, Aswin ist. Cowasjee Patell. See les Chrishna, 

Parasurama, etc. 
? Chaldea Epoch, the festival of Anaites. Cf . Berosus in Josephus. 

? Phrygia Epoch, the festival to Attis and Cybele. 

1250 ? Egypt Epoch, Thoth ist. Hellenicus in Plutarch's Isis and 

Osiris: Herod., Eut. 
1219 Greece Epoch, Vernal equinox, (Ischenia,) Valleius Paterculus; 

Plutarch in Theseus. The equable year was abolished 
by Solon. Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Anc. Astron. 
816 ? Etruriaor Rome Plutarch in Numa. Epoch, March ist. 

The determination of the equable solar year, its incorporation into 
the law of the land, and its adoption in practice, constituted a veri- 
table charter of freedom to mankind. / The previous employment of 
a lunar calendar had everywhere enabled the priesthood at their pleas- 
ure to lengthen or shorten the months, to precipitate or postpone 
important events, to accelerate or delay payments, to shift the holi- 
days and festivals and to alter or destroy their significance, so as to 
give them new and false meanings and attributes. Actual instances of 
this sort are given by Livy, Censorinus and other ancient writers. 
So flagrant did this abuse of privilege .become, that in many states of 
antiquity it was demanded of each new monarch that he should swear 
before being crowned that he would not permit the calendar to be 
altered. The institution of the equable year swept away the lunar 
calendar and with it many of those mysteries and impostures, which, 
m the hands of an unscrupulous hierarchy, had become a potent 
means of deception, tyranny and oppression. 

Lunar calendars are still employed by the Brahmins, Moslems and 
Jews. With regard to their practical effects among the followers of 
the two first mentioned cults, no details worthy of consideration have 
reached the Western world. The Jews retain a lunar calendar in 
their prayer books and ecclesiastical almanacs, but in actual practice 
and in every day life they use the Roman solar calendar. Indeed, 
without consulting an almanac, the laity would be quite unable to fix 
the New Year day, the Day of Atonement, the Passover, the Feast 



CYCLES. 245 

of Tabernacles, or any other great festival to any particular day of 
the year. 

In view of the synchronism between the institution of the equable 
solar year in India, Chaldea and Greece and the sera and festivals as- 
signed to les Chrishna, lesnu and Ischenou, it will hardly be ques- 
tioned that the legends, mysteries and r'tes peculiar to these deities 
and their relation to the apparent course of the Sun, were originally 
intended to fix, celebrate and commemorate the institution of the 
Solar Year. At a later period — that of the second Buddha — some of 
these rites, which meanwhile had been overthrown by the temporary 
ascendancy of the aristocratic and ecclesiastical party, were revived, 
in Greece, for example, by Solon, and piously ascribed to Bacchus; 
whose sera, that is to say the sera of the restoration of the Solar 
Calendar, was thrown back to and confused with that of Ischenou. 

365.242392 days. — The decimal expression of the "true solar 
year," as given by Joseph N. Lockyer, " Dawn of Astronomy," Lon- 
don, 1894, p. 251. 

365 1=4 days. — A year composed of this number of days is called 
the Julian, because it was first fixed and permanently established in the 
law of any country by Julius Caesar, who incorporated it into the 
law of the Roman Empire, B. C. 48. In some countries the Julian 
year was approximately known several centuries earlier than Casar. 
Herodotus only mentions the e,quable year of 365 days (Euterpe, 4); 
while Strabo and Diodorus believed that the year of 365^ days was 
known to the priests of Thebes (Egypt) so early as the sera of the 
of the "Second Hermes." Although this perhaps claimed too much, 
there is reason to believe that the Julian year was approximately 
known in Egypt much earlier than in Rome. As for Dr. Hales' sug- 
gestion that the Egyptian rectification of the sidereal (Sothiacal) 
year, of one year in 1460 years, proves that a knowledge of the Julian 
year was as old as the use of the Sothiacal cycle in Egypt it 
rather proves the contrary; for had the Julian year been known the 
rectification could have been made once in four years and the calen- 
dar preserved from a confusing retrogression running through 15 
centuries. The Sothiacal cycle was employed to harmonize the sid- 
ereal and solar year and for that purpose only. The following table 
shows the oldest dates known of the Julian year or of any approxi- 
mation toward it: 



246 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

CHRONOLOGY OF THE JULIAN YEAR. 

Date, B. C. Discoverer and Couatry. Authority. 

Uncertain Indian Bailly ; Delambre. 

" Chinese Delambre, Astron. Anc., I, 417. 

" Siamese Bailly ; Cassini. 

" Chaldean Bailly ; Delambre ; Freret. 

547 Egyptian Strabo ; Diodorus. (Doubtful). 

542 OEnopides of Chios Censorinus, XIX, says 365d. 8h. 57m. 

432 Meton of Athens Censorinus says 365d. 6h. i8m. 57s. 

Aphrodisius Censorinus says 365d, 3h. 

480 Harpalus Censorinus says 365d. I3h. 

432 Meton of Athens Greswell says 365d. 6h. i8m. 56.8s. 

330 Calippus Greswell says 365 X days. 

280 Aristarchus of Samos Censorinus says 365d. oh. cm. 53s. 

150 Hipparchus Greswell says 365d. 5h. 55m. 12s. 

80 Geminus of Rhodes Delambre, Astron. Anc., I, 298, says 365Xd. 

48 Julius Caesar His year was exactly 365 X days. 

The sera of CEnopides of Chios is uncertain. He is mentioned by 
Diodorus (1, 96,) Stobseus and Sextus Empiricus, of whom only 
Stobffius makes him later than Pythagoras. The date adopted in 
the table is from Greswell, who, though a very learned man, too 
often enslaved his judgment to his theory of a primeval year and 
calendar. Could reliance be placed upon this date it would follow 
that the Greeks approximated the Julian year so early as the time of 
Pythagoras. But the absence of the Julian year from the pages of 
Herodotus, is a serious obstacle to this theory. Upon a review of 
all the evidence it seems hazardous to admit even a knowledge of 
the Julian year in the West earlier than the time of Meton. As to 
its establishment in the law and practical use, there is no record 
earlier than Julius Caesar With regard to its chronology in the Orient, 
we are without reliable dates. We can only surmise that this knowl- 
edge, like most other knowledge of the kmd, radiated from India to 
China and Siam, on the one hand and to Chaldea and Egypt, on the 
other. Nothing more can be said until Oriental archaeology is able 
to add its testimony to our at present very slender stock of reliable 
information on this subject. The determinations assigned to Meton, 
Callippus and Geminus are the deductions of modern astronomers 

Whatever may be the real antiquity of the Julian year, when Caesar 
established and supported it with the authority, the arms, and the 
literature of Rome, he conferred upon the world a boon of the highest 
value. Tedious as are the steps by which mankind has endeavoured 
to emancipate itself from hierarchical rule, none has proved of more 
practical importance than the recognition and adoption of a true year 
in place of a false one; a solar year in place of a lunar one. It res- 
cued from the control of hierarchs the archives of the past and the 
framing of history. It laid the foundation of political and religious 



CYCLES. 247 

literature, which before that time could have had no stable existence, 
because before that time there was no certain date; no reason- 
ing from experience; no science of causation. It inflicted a death- 
blow to lunar calendars, one of the principal supports of religious 
imposture. Above all, it vindicated the holiness and majesty of sci- 
entific truth and its superiority over mere human contrivances to 
secure the freedom and happiness of mankind. Caesar was a priest 
of Jupiter; he was the High-priest, the Pontifex Maximus of Rome; 
a man of great intelligence, the most comprehensive knowledge and 
the utmost refinement. It can scarcely be doubted that he was fully 
aware of the importance of his decree which established and enforced 
the Julian year; and much might be written to prove that this had 
more to do with the hatred which afterwards assailed him from noble 
and hierarch than the peurile charge of having set up himself for a 
king. 

6585 2=3 days. — The Ecliptical Cycle, or Cycle of the Eclipses, 
of exactly 6585. 78 days. This is the most significant of all the cycles, 
and was well known to the Hindus at a very early date, *' says Bren- 
nand." The Chinese called this number of days a Ven, Fen, or 
Phen, (which means ten), the Chaldeans, ''The Period," and the 
Greeks, as many authors assert, a ''saros," the root of the word 
being sar, meaning ten. However, the terms sossos, neuros and 
saros have been explained by Polyhistor, Syncellus, Abydenus, Suidas, 
Valiancy, Dupuis, Greswell and other commentators, so variously, 
that in order to avoid a verbal dispute, they have not been used in 
the present work at all. The Ecliptical cycle embraces the entire 
series of eclipses, of which there are usually 29 lunar and 41 solar. 
The priests employed it to awe the multitude and the commanders of 
armies to terrify the enemy Moreover, there was built upon it an 
astrology and a messianic theory which pervades all the religions of 
antiquity and which therefore renders a knowledge of this cycle and 
of its origin and the uses to which it was put, of essential importance 
to the study of religion and history. 

Bailly fixes the discovery of this cycle in India and Tartary to the 
period when the vernal equinox was well within the constellation 
Taurus, in other words, over four thousand years ago. This date 
for the vernal equinox in Taurus is based upon the erroneous assump- 
tion that the number of the zodions has always been twelve. It must 
therefore share the fate of the erroneous assumption. Other writers 
have discerned evidences of this cycle in India so early as the Ma- 
habharata wars, although it may not have been determined accurately 



248 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

until a later period. It was only after the 12th century B. C. that 
what appears to be distinct marks may be seen of the messianic the- 
ory to which the cycle gave rise, or with which it was connected. 
This theory was that the Creator would appear upon earth to rectify 
the deranged affairs of mankind every 65S5 months, or in as many 
months as there were whole days in the cycle. As the year then con- 
sisted of ten months, the incarnations or avatars fell every 658th 
year. Continuing upon the same line of thought, the messianic theory 
foretold the destruction of the world in the same number of years 
6585, from the Creation. Grotesque as this theory may seem to us 
when set forth in sober terms, it actually forms the basis and it may 
be added the only basis, for some of the holiest and most tender be- 
liefs in which humanity has found consolation for the wounds and 
havoc of injustice, misfortune and death. The philosopher may al- 
lude to it with coldness and contempt: the worshipper can only re- 
member the maternal sanctuary at which he learnt those exquisite 
allegories behind which lurks this skeleton of an astronomical truth. 
As the cycle is really not a diurnal, but a lunar one, it is treated more 
at length under 223 lunations and 6585 lunations, q. v. 

(}(5(>0 days. — The Ecliptical cycle, according to Berosus. Higgins, 
Anacal, I, iSo. 

6793 1=2 days. — Revolution of the moon's node. Lockyer. See 
230 months. Brennand calls it the sidereal period of the moon's 
node and fixes it at 6793.3910S days. The Surya Siddhanta made 
it 6794.443 mean solar days. Brennand, 43. 

19,756 days. — Exieligmos, a cycle consisting of three ecliptical 
cycles, which was used by the Greeks, Egyptians and Chaldeans to 
foretell eclipses. Greswell, F.C, I, 69;/; IV, 100. See 669 luna- 
tions. The Hindus had the ecliptical cycle in the 15th century B.C. 

1 moiilli. — A revolution of the moon, or a synodic lunation, 
consists of 29d. i2h. 44m. 2.84s. Lockyer, p. 213. Thisisamonth. 
Eleven other determinations will be found in Greswell, F. C , I, 69. 
The nodical, tropical, sidereal and anomalistic months consist each 
of 27 days and a fraction, such fraction of a day varying from 5 plus, 
to 13 plus hours. The civil month has varied from 45 to 30 days. 

10 months. — The ancient year consisted of ten civil months 
each of ;^6 days, with five intercalaries. On this subject we have the 
testimony ot Ovid, Livy, Censorinus, Aulus Gellius and other ancient 
writers. This testimony is corroborated by proofs from extra- 
neous sources. There cannot be any reasonable doubt that previous 
to the period ascribed to the second Buddha, Bacchus, or Hermes, 



CYCLES. 249 

that is to say, between the eighth and sixth centuries B. C, the year, 
among all civilised peoples, was divided into ten months each of 36 
days and that in Rome, the day of rest, of worship and of fairs, was 
the ninth and not the seventh, as it became at a later period. 

It is a curious circumstance, which has not yet been satisfiictorily 
explained, that in the mythos of the Brahminical or Brahmo-Buddhic 
avatars the incarnated god is often described as a ten months' child, 
and that in such respect, as well as in others, it differed wondrously 
from other children. Ten months of 30 days each would not differ 
so much irom the ordinary period of gestation as to render it at all 
wonderful; whilst ten months of 1^6 days would. It is therefore sug- 
gested that the true explanation of this detail of the mythos is con- 
nected with the superior length of the ancient month, 

12 months. — There is no valid evidence extant to support a year 
of twelve civil months, that is to say, a solar or luni-solar year of 
360, 365, or 365 jS^ days, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, 
or thereabouts, prior to the period of the second Buddha, or Hermes. 
There were, indeed, years of this number of days, but not of this 
number of months. The year was divided not into 12, but into ten, 
and still more anciently into eight, months; the division into 12 
months being apparently a product of this period. The testimony 
of the Bible, upon which Hales, Greswell, Kennedy and other scrip- 
tural chronologists rely so implicitly, does not touch the case at all; 
because there is no portion of the Bible which may not have been 
written after that period. See s^ and 36^ }( days. 

13 months. — An ancient year of 13 lunar months is mentioned 
by Gerald Massey (The Natural Genesis, II, 308,) who believes 
(though erroneously) that it gave rise to the superstitious notion of 
ill-luck which is attached to the number Thirteen. In A. D. 1899 an 
American inventor, (State of Indiana), patented ai^alendar year) of 
13 civil months each of 28 days (with an intercalary day) in the be- 
lief that his invention was novel and was likely to be generally adopted 
throughout the world! 

27 lunar mansions. — At a very early period (Bentley says be- 
tween B. C. 1528 and 1371) the Hindus divided the ecliptic into 27 
(previously 28) lunar mansions or nachshatras, giving to each one 
13^ degrees, thus 27x13/^=360. Each mansion, nachshatra, or 
asterisra included a group of stars, whose principal one, the yoga- 
tara, gave to, or took its name from, the nachshatra. The Vedas 
called these the 27 daughters of Daksha, whom he gave in marriage 
to the moon, Soma. The Chinese have a similar division of the 



,250 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

ecliptic into 27 sieu, but they apportion it differently, giving to some 
of the mansions or sieu 30 degrees and to others but a few minutes. 
The Arabians had 28 mansions, differing from both the foregoing, 
but with some analogy for the Chinese system. The Egyptians 
adopted the lunar mansions at a comparatively late date, but made 
little or no use of them. The lunar mansions had no place in Greek 
astronomy. The period when the Hindus changed their division of 
the ecliptic from 28 to 27 parts is regarded by Brennand as earlier 
than the composition of the Vedas, or indeed, of any historical record. 
These lunar mansions served somewhat the same purpose in Hindu 
astronomy as the solar zodiac in that of the Western nations. Sir 
Geo. Cornewall Lewis; Gerald Massey. 

99 lunations. — Approximately 2922 days. The octseteris cycle, 
so called, because it equalled eight Julian years, e. g., 8X365^=2922 
days. In this period the lunar year and the Julian (but not the natu- 
ral) solar year can be adjusted. Censorinus, XVIII, ascribed the 
invention or discovery of the octseteris cycle to Eudoxus of Cnidus, 
who flourished in the fourth century before our sera. Boeckh, Ideler 
and Gotfried Miiller believe that the octaeteris is as early as Proclus, 
fifth century B. C. This conclusion is derived from the festival of 
Chresto-mathia, which Proclus describes. A large ball was fastened 
to the top of an olive stick and another smaller ball in the middle. 
To the latter were attached 365 smaller balls, by purple fillets. The 
top ball represented the Sun, the middle ball the Moon and the 
smaller ones, the Stars; the correspondiug fillets representing the 
course of the Sun in Days. The objection to the theory of the 
German savants is that the number of fillets implies an equable, not 
a Julian year. It is probably for this reason that it is rejected by 
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, The antiquity of the octseteris in 
Greece must therefore rest for the present with Eudoxus of Cnidus. 
Greswell, K. H., I, 40, contends that the octseteris was employed in 
Greece before the time of Solon and in another work, F. C, I, 67, 
he traces it in Egypt back to B. C. 1261; but these dates and the 
-arguments by which they are supported, are of very doubtful validity. 
See 1980 lunations further on. 

198 lunations. — The hekkaidekseteris, or double octseteris cycle. 
It was used to adjust the solar and lunar calendars of Greece. It 
loses about 3^ days on the moon: Geminus, " Uranologium," about 
B. C. 80. Greswell, F. C, I, 105, is of opinion that it was nearly 
as ancient as the octseteris, but was little employed, because it had 
no practical advantages over the the other. See 1980 lunations. 



CYCLES. 251 

223 Itinations. — The great Ecliptical Cycle, already introduced 
under the heading of 6585^ days. As there stated, this significant 
cycle is not a diurnal, but a lunar one. To couch it in days or years 
is apt to be misleading. It has sometimes been called the Nodical 
cycle. According to Lockyerthis also is wrong: the Nodical cycle 
consisting of 230 lunations, or 6793^ days, q. v. The Ecliptical 
cycle begins with a conjunction of the sun and moon (new moon) 
and continues until the sun and moon (some say also the node) re- 
turn to the same positions as at the outset. This occurs in 223 luna- 
tions, or 18 years and ten (or 11) days and seven, (or eight), hours. 
Brennand says "and eighteen hours." During this period there will 
usually occur 41 solar and 29 lunar eclipses. At the end of the period 
the same routine of eclipses will begin to recur, and they will happen 
on or about the same days of the equable solar year. A cycle com- 
posed of three Ecliptical cycles, or 669 lunations, will bring the 
eclipses to the day and almost to the hour required by the rule. See 
6585^ days and 658 years. 

230 lunations. — Revolution of the moon's node. Lockyer. See 
6793>^ days. 

235 lunations. — Metonic Cycle, so named after Meton of Athens, 
its Greek discoverer, B. C. 432. During the course of this cycle and 
upon a given system of intercalation the new and full moons return 
to the same days of the (30-day) month. Consequently the cycle was 
not employed until after the year was divided into 1 2 months, which, as 
before stated, took place in various states some time between the 
eighth and sixth centuries B. C. The priests of Meton's time were 
so delighted with a discovery that enabled them to identify and re- 
tain their lunar festivals in a solar calendar, that they loaded the 
astronomer with honors, called his Cycle the Golden and set it up in 
the Athenian pynx in letters of gold; at all events, they said in after 
times that they had done so, which, as things go, is much the same 
thing. Bentley and Greswell, who argued that the Metonic cycle 
was necessarily connected with the Julian year, which it is not, traced 
this cycle back to India B. C. , 946 ; Japan, 660 ; China, 65 7 ; Siam, 545 ; 
and Egypt (Ptolemaic,) 360. All these dates, except perhaps the first 
one, are possible. Greswell, F. C, I, 109, 579-83. The Metoniccycle 
is purely lunar ; and the practice of stating it in days (6939d. i4h. 27m. ) 
or in years (about 19) is misleading. Its epoch in Athens was Heca- 
tombian ist (July 15th) B. C. 432. Diodorus, II, iii, says that in the 
Island of the Hyperboreans they observe a cycle of 19 years, during 
which "the stars perform their courses and return to the same point- 



252 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

and therefore the Greeks call this revolution of 19 years the Great 
Year." Dr. Whewell says that the Metonic cycle is still used to calcu- 
late the new moon for the time of Easter. Cf. Sir Geo. Cornewall 
Lewis. 

309 lunations. — Apis cycle. During this period and upon a given 
system of intercalation, (the equable year, with five epagomense,) the 
lunar and solar dates in the equable year are restored. A very high 
antiquity has been claimed for this cycle; but for such antiquity there 
appears to be no sufficient warrant. The Apis cycle was celebrated by 
the Egyptian priests with great rejoicings and was made the occasion 
when a calf, called the Apis, was exhibited in the temple at Memphis, 
which it was claimed had been foaled upon a cow by lightning from 
heaven. This fable led to the worship of the calf as a heaven-born 
creature. For slaying the Apis of his time the Egyptian priests black- 
ened the character of Cambyses to all eternity. Herodotus, II, 153; 
III, 27. Dupuis, following Plutarch and Jablowski, appears to re- 
gard the Apis cycle of the Egyptians as a solar period of exactly 25 
years, when the sun and moon came into conjunction. Plutarch, de 
Isis; Jablowski, IV, 2; Dupuis, II, i, 125. This is not accurate. 
309 lunations equal 9i24d. 22h. 50m. 37.56s., while 25 equable years 
equal 9125 days; and 25 Julian years equal 9131^ days. See 550 
years. 

360 lunations. — The Moslem cycle, sometimes called the cycle 
of the Hegira; though it is believed to be much older than the 
Hegira. According to Suidas, the Egyptians of the Ptolemaic pe- 
riod had a 30-year cycle, called the Mneius, which, although it has 
been argued was a solar cycle, yet it appears more likely to have been 
a lunar one of 360 lunations. This cycle has also been traced to 
Medina and Mecca, A. D. 383. In A. D. 630 the Moslem calendar 
was reformed by Mahomet and its epoch changed to Moharram ist 
(July i6th) A. D. 622. In Hegira 211, or A. D. 826, it was again 
reformed. Greswell. About the beginning of the tenth century of 
our sera the Moslem calendar was again reformed by the Caliph Mu- 
tadid. Albiruni. The Moslem year consists of 12 lunar months of 
alternately 30 and 29 days, aggregating 354, sometimes 355 days. 
•The 360 months' cycle is employed to adjust the civil to the natural 
months. The calendar is strictly lunar, the 12 months in the aggre- 
gate being reckoned at 12 times 29d. i2h. 44m., which is but 2.84 
seconds short of the truth. It takes more than 500 years to restore 
the commencement of the year to the same solar day of the Julian 
calendar; meanwhile the dates recede ten to 12 days every year. 



CYCLES. 253 

532 lunations.— The twelfth part (roughly) of the Dionysian, or 
Paschal, cycle of 532 years, q. v. 

669 lunations. — Three Ecliptical cycles of 223 lunations, q.v. It 
was sometimes used in place of the former, as being more exact. See 
19,756 days. 

730 lunations. — A luni-solar cycle ascribed by Hellenic tradition 
to Pythagoras, sometimes to Philolaus of Croton, a disciple of the 
Pythagorian school. It is contended by Greswell that this cycle was 
employed by (Enopides of Chios, another Pythagorian; and that its 
epoch was affixed by him to the solar term of the Olympic games, on 
June 25, B. C. 544. Cf. ^lian in Greswell, K. H., I, 440, andF.C, 
I» 557- The number of days reckoned to this cycle was 21,557, or 
a few hours more than 59 Julian years. 

940 lunations. — The Calippic cycle, invented by Calippus of 
Cyzicus, who fixed its epoch in Hecatombeon ist, then June 28th, 
B. C. 330, the supposed year of its invention. It consists of four 
Metonic cycles and was employed or offered for the same purpose, 
for which it was somewhat better suited than the former. 

1980 lunations. — Twenty octseteric cycles each of 99 lunations, 
q. V. This cycle has been deduced from an inscription (Corp. In- 
scrip, Grsecorum No. 71) which Boeckh attributes to about B. C. 445. 
Greswell is of opinion that a cycle of 1979 lunations, equal to 58,441 
days, 40 minutes and 12.7659 seconds, was used in Greece, so early 
as and perhaps before the time of Solon, as the equivalent of 160 
Julian years, or 58,440 days, leaving a fraction over of one day and 
a few minutes and seconds to be intercalated at the termination of 
the cycle. To bring the 1979 lunations to the result mentioned, he 
uses a lunation of 29d. i2h. 44m. 2.5532s., which, according to Lock- 
yer, is incorrect. If it be admitted that Greswell's standard of a 
lunation was actually used in Greece at any time — and this is not im- 
possible — this fact, coupled with the use of a cycle of 1979 lunations, 
would carry a knowledge of the Julian year in Greece backward to 
B. C. 592, the year indicated by Greswell, K. H., I, 41. But the 
discovery of a tablet which records a cycle of 1980 lunations does not 
prove the use of a cycle of 1979 lunations. The antiquity of the 
Julian year in Greece must therefore rest for the present with QEnop- 
ides, who, however, possessed no means of enacting it into law, 

3055 lunations. — See 247 years. 

3760 lunations. — See 304 years. 

4267 lunations. — By comparing the observations of the Chal- 
deans with his own, Hipparchus discovered that the shortest period 



254 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

in which the lunar eclipses (this does not include the solar) return in 
the same order was 126, 007 days and one hour. In this period he found 
4267 lunations. From this he concluded that the lunar month con- 
tained 29d. i2h. 44m. 3/^s. It is not known that the cycle of the 
lunar eclipses was ever turned to religious or astrological account. 

6585 months. — The ancient Brahminical and Hindu Divine Year, 
consisting of 6585 civil months, (each of 36 days,) or 658 solar years, 
or ^6 Ecliptical cycles. Such was the measure of this cycle at the 
time when the year was divided into ten months. When afterwards 
the year was divided into 12 months the Divine year continued to 
consist of 658 solar years, but it was upon the basis shown elsewhere 
herein. At the beginning of each of these periods of 658 years the 
Creator was expected to appear on earth incarnated, the miraculous 
occurrence being called an avatar, or avatara. The dates of these 
periods are set forth in Chap. VI of Avatars. The use of this Indian 
Divine year by the Assyrians is proved by the intervals between the 
incarnation of Bel-Issus, B. C. 2064, Nin-Ies, B. C. 1406, and Nebo- 
Nazaru, B. C. 748. Its use by the Greeks is proved by the intervals 
between the incarnation of Chres, B. C. 2064, and Jasius, B. C. 1406. 
Its use by the Jews is proved by their Anno Mundi, B. C. 3670, which 
is the date of the sixth incarnation of lesnu, 01 just one Indian Divine 
year before the Calijoga. Its use by the Romans, both before and 
after the Christian sera, is shown by the numerous pretenders to di 
vinity who appeared at or near the beginning of the Indian Divine 
years, and proclaimed themselves to be the Son of God, predicted in 
the Sibylline books. Especially is it shown by the public and official 
recognition and impious worship of Augustus Quirinus Dionysius, 
as god upon earth, theos, divos, the living god, the sacrosanct, the 
messiah, the saviour, the promised prince of peace, who it was pre- 
tended was born of the Virgin Maia and who at his death ascended 
bodily to heaven. Finally, its recognition by the Latin Sacred Col- 
lege is evinced by the date assigned by that institution to the Nativ- 
ity of Jesus, which is just one Indian Divine year from the nativity 
of the Brahmo-Buddhic incarnation; it is also proved by the papal 
celebrations of the Ludi ssculares and by numerous other astrol- 
ogical dates and features of the Roman Church. 

7491 lunations. — Cycle mentioned in Higgins' " Celtic Druids, " 
p. 48, as being equal to 600 Julian years of 365 days, 5 hours, 51 
minutes. But as there is no Julian year of this length, which is known 
to have ever been in use, his computation appears to be artificial and 
constructed to support theories which had no footing in actual practice. 



CYCLES. 255 

Moreover, it makes the lunation equal to 29d. 6h. 6m, 37,92s., which 
is not within six hours of the truth. He says: " Supposing this cycle 
were correct to a second, if on the ist of January at noon, a new moon 
took place, it would take place again in exactly 600 years, at the same 
moment of the day and under all the same circumstances." Higgins 
believed this to be the cycle mentioned by Josephus, Antiq., I, 3; but 
see remarks herein under 600 years. 

7520. lunations. — See 608 years. 

22,300 lunations. — One hundred Ecliptical cycles each of 223 
lunations. Jules Oppert says the Chaldeans and Egyptians used an 
Ecliptical cycle of 1805 years, or 22,325 lunations, " during which 
the eclipses return to the same order." This computation exceeds 
the fact by 25 lunations, the true multiple of the Ecliptical cycle 
consisting of 22,300 lunations. If Oppert is correct, and he is very 
high authority in such matters, then the Chaldean and Egyptian di- 
vine year consisted of 659 instead of 658 years, as with the Hindus, 
Greeks and Romans. Cf. Gustave Oppert, op. cit., p. 331. 

1 year. — Formerly it meant the interval occupied by the sun in per- 
forming his apparent course through the ecliptic. It now means the 
time taken by the earth to revolve in its orbit around the sun. Bailly 
very justly remarked that the precise determination of the year was 
one of the masterpieces of astronomy; and even to-day some thirty- 
odd different determinations could be adduced, each of which fur- 
nished the foundation for theories upon which the learned world has 
been content at one time or another to rest its astrological and even 
its astronomical systems. According to Dr. Greswell, the word "year" 
is immediately from the old Saxon iar. But it is in fact derived more 
remotely from the Greek z^^r, whence vernal, the spring, or prime- 
time, printemps, the ver of the annus, or circle (Haliburton, 41). Its 
still more remote origin is oriental. The Syrian month lyarandthe 
Hebrew month Jar, Iar, or lyar, both of which anciently commenced 
either on the vernal equinox, or else, like the Roman Palalia, about 
the first day of our May, were probably derived from the same word 
and connected with, the idea that henceforth, from this moment, the 
reckoning of time commenced. Greswell, F. C, Introd., 80, fixes, 
with confidence, the origin of the Hebrew names of the months in 
B. C. 524. Nevertheless jar, iar, ear, ver, or year, meaning the prime- 
time, may have been of far more remoter origin and may even have 
preceded the computation of time by years ; for, as we shall presently 
see, time was anciently computed by the seasons. 



256 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Year of 1, 2, or S months. — Diodorus says that at one time the 
Egyptians had "years" of one month; Censorinus says they had 
years of two months. Both of these authors may be correct. They 
also state that the Egyptians had years of three months, correspond- 
ing to the seasons. This may also be correct. On the other hand, 
the years of one or two months may be merely deductions made 
in the attempt to accept, or account, for the immense antiquity in 
"years" which the Egyptians claimed for their royal dynasties. 
For example, Diodorus says that if the Egyptian gods reigned from 
300 to 1200 years each, this must mean months; for "even at this 
day, now that there are twelve months to the year, many persons live 
a hundred years. " The years of three months each are undoubtedly 
matters of fact. The year, as now understood, is not a very ancient 
measure of time, simply because it was impossible to compute or 
mark the year with precision. The earliest form of the calendar was 
probably lunar; but as the use of a lunar calendar inevitably leads to 
the ascendancy of hierarchs and the slavery and degradation of the 
masses, there must have come a period in the history of all peoples 
when the computation and regulation of time was wrested from the 
temples and conferred upon the State. That period has never been 
traced higher than les Chrishna, or the first Buddha of India, and it 
is seriously to be doubted if any valid evidence exists to establish a 
solar year, whether of 365, 360, or any other number of days, earlier 
than the date assigned to that mythical, but popularly accepted law- 
giver. The earliest form of the solar calendar seems to have been a 
year of about 90 days. After the mythical period, their years, says 
Diodorus, writing of the Egyptians, were the same as our seasons, 
(in Greek, horas, of which there were four to the year.) Diogenes 
says in his Life of Thales, that the astronomer confined his attention 
largely to the tropics (solstices) and equinoxes, because he was satis- 
fied from the most searching investigations that "nothing else could 
be determined positively." As Thales was a Phoenician by extraction 
and a Greek by birth, this must be taken to roughly express the limits 
of both Eastern and Western experience on the subject at this period, 
namely, that no better measure of time had yet been discovered than 
that of reckoning it by seasons. We shall presently see that this 
practice had led to the civil year of 360 days, divided into eight 
months each of 45 days; yet the civil year is not an astronomical in- 
terval and therefore is not embraced in the remark attributed to 
Thales. In addition to the years first above mentioned, Censorinus 
says that the Arcadians (like the Egyptians) had years of three 



CYCLES. 257 

months ; whilst the Carians and Acarnanians had years of six months 
each. These last probably consisted of two seasons, or horas, the 
first commencing in our May, the other in our November; but the 
practice of thus dividing time is comparatively modern and belongs 
to the second Buddhic period. Censorinus also asserts that under 
King Ison (whoever he was) the Egyptians had years of four months 
each ; but if so, then it was when the year was divided into eight months 
each of 45 days. Cf. Dio. Sic, I, 26; Censorinus, XIX; Varro, in Lac- 
tantius, II, 12; Pliny, VII, 49; Manetho, apud Eusebius, " Chron. ; " 
Philostratus; Diogenes; Plutarch, in " Numa; " Solinus; Macrobius; 
Augustin of Hippo; etc. 

Year of 8 months. — The season of 90 days must have proved 
inconveniently brief for long reckonings and inconveniently long for 
short reckonings. Still, anxious to avoid the trap of a lunar year, 
into which it must be inferred they had more than once fallen, the 
nations of antiquity, instinctively groping their way toward emanci- 
pation from Brahminical tyranny, next adopted a solar year of 360 
days, divided into eight half-seasons each of 45 days. The evidences 
which establish this form of calendar are: i, the number of the gods 
or kabirim who presided over the months, of which gods there were 
remotely but eight, (Euterpe, 46) ; 2, the ancient eight-sign zodiacs, 
of which one is now in the British Museum; 3, and the days of the 
solar festivals, which now fall on such odd days of the month as could 
only have been occasioned by an alteration of the calendar from a 
year of eight months to one of ten months and, still later, to one of 
12 months. 

Year of 10 months. — The principal evidences which support an 
ancient year of ten months are as follows: i, the alteration of the 
zodiac, which previous to the second Buddhic period, contained but 
ten signs; 2, the dislocation of the zodiac and the constellations, 
which formerly agreed, but do so no longer; 3, the numerical names 
of the Roman months, which plainly indicate that formerly the whole 
number was ten; 4, the repetition or duplication of two names in 
each and all the foreign calendars, which indicates that formerly 
there were but ten months; 5, the present appearance of many an- 
cient stone calendars and planispheres which shows that they have 
been altered from a decimal to a duodecimal division; 6, the Roman 
method of dividing the month, which was originally by ides, (eighteen 
days), and nones (nine days), but was afterwards altered to ides, 
nones and calends, of unequal lengths and awkward arrangement- 
7, the number of the gods, patriarchs, dactyles, laws, prytanes 



258 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

dicasts, judices, etc., which anciently was ten and was afterwards 
altered to 12 ; 8, the epochs of the solar festivals, which now fall on 
days that from their oddity, for example, Lady Day, St. John's Day 
and Christmas, on the 25th and Michelmas on the 29th of a month, 
imply an alteration of the calendar from a decimal to a duodecimal 
division; 9, the cross-quarter days, which unmistakeably indicate the 
alteration; 10, the explicit testimony of several ancient authors; be- 
sides many other evidences. 

It may here be remarked that the peculiar subdivision of the Ro- 
man month seems to have had its precedent in India, some remains 
of which subdivision were observed by Sonnerat. The Hindu days 
of the moon were called Tides, which suggests Ides. The first of these 
was called Predame, the analogue of Pridus. The ninth was called 
Naomi, or Navami, the analogue of nones. "Voyage aux Indes," 
I, 240-49. The Indian months began sometimes on the 7th and at 
others on the 13th of the Roman months. This resembled the Ro- 
man ides, which fell variously on the 15th or else the 13th of the 30- 
day month. 

Year of 11 months. — See Chap. II, herein. 

Year of 12 lunar months. — Li vy ascribes the 12 months' lunar 
year of Rome to Numa, while Julianus Grsechianus credits it to Tar- 
quin. Cf. Censorinus. 

Year of 12 civil months. — The earliest form of this year was 
the equable, consisting of 365 days, of which 360 were apportioned 
to 12 civil months and five were intercalated annually, or at some less 
frequent period. In the latter case the epagomense were usually 
formed into a supernumerary month every four, five, or six years. 
The later form of the 12 months' year was the Julian, which con- 
sisted and still consists of 365^ days. It has been argued that be- 
fore the calendar reform of Caesar, the odd 5 ^ days were intercalated, 
both in Greece and Rome, in the same manner as had been the odd 
five days of the equable year; but whether this was the fact or not, 
Caesar distributed five of these days among the various months, leav- 
ing only one-quarter of a day to be intercalated. This was and is still 
done by making every fourth year one day longer than the others. 

The exact length of the natural tropical year, as determined by 
Pope Gregory in 1582, is 365d. 5h. 48m. 49.7s., or iim. 10.3s. shorter 
than the Julian year, which therefore in the course of the sixteen 
centuries since its establishment in Rome, had advanced the calendar 
more than ten days. This difference formed the basis (though not 
the pretext) of the calendar "reform" of Gregory, one feature of 



CYCLES. 



259 



which consisted of dropping ten days from the calendar, or counting 
October 5, 1582, as October 15, 1582. Upon Gregory's basis the 
diiference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendars now (A. D. 
1900) amounts to 12 days. This is shown in the difference between 
the Christian date of Western Europe and the Christian date of 
Greece and Russia, both of which states still employ the calendar of 
Caesar. Assuming the Gregorian day to be correct, the real differ- 
ence exceeds 15 days. But modern astronomical investigation proves 
that Pope Gregory was wrong and that the true length of the trop- 
ical year is 36sd. sh. 48m. 46s. (Newcomb). The difference is too 
small to require any further adjustment of the calendar. 
Year of 30 months. — Greswell, F. C, II, 139. 

2 years. — The dieteris, a solar cycle for intercalating an extra 
lunar month. It was made the occasion of a festival to Dionysius. 
Censorinus, XVIII. 

3 years. — The trieteris, a cycle of three years. Censorinus. 
4=year Olympiads. A cycle of four solar years, at the end of which, 

it is assumed by the Augustan historians, that the epagomense were 
intercalated, and the added interval devoted to rejoicings. These 
took the form of athletic contests, known as the Olympian games. 
According to their account, Coroebus was successful at the first games 
of the four-year Olympiads: therefore this series was called by his 
name, to distinguish it from the earlier series of five-year Olympiads, 
next to be mentioned. The epoch was Hecatombian ist, which cor- 
responded with the summer solstice, an agreement that was after- 
wards destroyed by the degenerate employment of lunar, or luni- 
solar, calendars. The Romans, who would have nothing to do with 
lunar calendars, reckoned the four-year Olympiads (in their twelve- 
months year) from July ist. 

5=year Vedic cycle, or cycle employed in the Indian Vedas, or 
sacred scriptures, which Max- Miiller regards as the most ancient 
works extant. " The month is lunar, but at the end and in the mid- 
dle of the quinquennial period an intercalation is admitted by doubling 
one month. Accordingly, the cycle comprises three common lunar 
years, besides two others, each of which contains thirteen lunations, 
altogether five yea^s. The year is divided into six seasons and each 
month into two half-months. A complete lunation is measured by 
30 lunar days, some of which, of course, must in alternate months 
be sunk, to make the dates agree with the Nychthemera, for which 
purpose the 62nd day appears to be deducted. Thus the cycle of 
five years consists of i860 lunar days or 1830 Nychthemera, subject 



26o A NEW CHRONOLOGY 

to further correction. The zodiac is divided (in the Vedas) into 27 
asterisms or signs, the first of which, both in the Jyotish and the 
Vedas, is Crittica, or the Pleiades." .... The measure 
of a day by 30 hours and that of an hour by 60 minutes are ex- 
plained in Colebrooke's Essays, I, 106. The cycle of five years 
was expanded to one of 60 years. Brennand, "Hindu Astron.," 60. 
This was probably after the determination of the period of Jupiter. 

5=year Olympiads. At the remotest period to which Greek his- 
tory can be traced the epagomenae were intercalated every five years 
and the supernumerary month (of 25 days) was devoted to a festival, 
with rejoicings and games, which became the origin of the Ischenia, 
Cronia, or Saturnalia. The establishment of the five-year Olympiads 
was attributed by the Greeks to Jasius and the Ten Dactyles, B. C. 
1406: but, in fact, they cannot be traced back earlier than the Vene- 
tian Ischenus, after whom they were originally named and whose sera 
was B, C. 1 2 19. Furgault, 199, attributes the Greek pentseteris to 
Bacchus. In B. C. 884, according to Eratosthenes, or B. C. 828, 
according to Callimachus, this festival, which had fallen into neglect, 
was revived by King Iphitus, in honor of Jupiter, that newly-dis- 
covered god, for whom the Greeks had forsaken their faithful, but 
now unfashionable, Ischenus, whose later name of Issus, Nissus, or 
Dionysius is, however, still firmly attached to the rivers and towns 
of Greece and of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor. The festival 
was held at Pisa, on the banks of the Alpheus, near the great temple 
of Ischenus, afterwards dedicated to Jupiter at Olympia, and was 
observed down to the period of Augustus. The Scythians, or Goths, 
more faithful to their ancient worship than the Greeks, observed the 
quinquennial Olympiads down to the last days of Augustus. "In 
Scythia nobis quinquennis Olympias acta est." Ovid's Pontine Epis- 
tles, IV, 6. In Rome the quinquennial Olympian festivals were prac- 
tically abolished by Augustus, who deprived them of their sacred 
character and gave them a new name. They lingered until abol- 
ished by Theodosius, A. D. 394. In modern times the Olympian 
games, consisting of mere athletic contests, having no connection 
with the calendar, nor with astrology, nor religion, were revived by 
Mr. Zappas, A. D. 1858, and again by the efforts of some other 
wealthy Greek, in A. D. 1896, on which last occasion they were cele- 
brated in the restored stadium of Athens. 

5=year lustrum. A cycle of five solar years, the end of which 
was celebrated by the Romans with expiatory sacrifices. There can 
be little doubt that the lustrum was similar to and had its origin in 



CYCLES. 261 

the five-year Olympiads. It is said to have been instituted in Rome 
B. C. 472. Censorinus XVIII ascribes its origin to Servius TulHus 
(B. C. 578). The lustra were last celebrated A. D. 74. 

8 years. — The octseteris of 99 lunations, or, approximately, eight 
Julian years. The discovery of this cycle is attributed by Censori- 
nus, XVIII, either to Cleostratus of Tenidos (B. C. 536), or else to 
Eudoxus of Cnidus (fourth Century B. C.) See 99 lunations. The 
Dalmatae of the Adriatic, probably connected with the Veneti, redi- 
vided their lands every eighth year. Strabo, VII, v, 5. 

11 years, plus. Cycle of the Sun Spots as determined by 
Schwabe, of Dessau, from observations made during the period 
A, D. 1826-72, "rather more than 11 years." Am. Cyc. Brit., art. 
"Astronomy." 

12 years. — The Cycle of Jupiter, or Jove, and the orbital period 
of that planet. This cycle was probably known in India so early as 
the 12th Century B. C. and in Chaldea not long afterwards. (See 
Chapter V, herein). From Chaldea the discovery made its way to 
Egypt and Greece, in both of which countries it exercised an im- 
portant influence upon astrological and religious belief. The Jovian 
cult was probably introduced into Greece before the time of Iphitus, 
because, as shown above, he adapted the five-year Ischenia (Olym- 
piads) to its ceremonial ; yet the Jovian cult, under another name, 
e. g.^ the Isthenian, Pelopian, or Cronian, may have preceded a 
knowledge of the Jovian cycle. Censorinus calls it "the Chaldean 
or Great year"; Pausanias, "the Great Year." The more exact 
period of Jupiter's orbit is 12 years and five days. Scaliger shows 
that " from the earliest times " the 12-year cycle was common to the 
Taters (Mongols, Mantchus and Igurians), the Tibetans, Chinese, 
Siamese and Japanese. Plutarch says of the 60-year cycle, "It is 
the original cycle known to all astronomers," meaning very ancient. 

15 years. — Cycle of the Indiction. A cycle of 15 solar years, 
equal to three lustra, employed by the Romans for levying taxes and 
counting the population. According to Gregory VII., (A. D. 1073-80) 
and as set forth in L'art de Verifier les Dates and in the various 
chronological works and Dictionaries of Dates based upon it, the 
Indictions commenced with the sera of Constantine the Great, Jan- 
uary I, A. D. 313; but they really had a much more ancient origin. 
They are mentioned by Malala and the Paschal Chronicon as of B. C. 
45 and by Pliny the Younger in the reign of Trajan: Nee novis 
indictionibus pressi ad tributa deficiant Both Scaliger and the Abbe 
Lengletde Fresnoy, unwilling to mention the true date of the Roman 



262 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Indictions, have attributed them to a slightly older date than they 
merit, namely, the Caesarian sera of Antioch, B. C. 48. Picot, I, 151. 
The history of this cycle is preserved in the New Testament and the 
Monumentum Ancyranum, It was originally established B. C. 45, or 
30 and permanently confirmed by Augustus after the pacification of 
Syria and before the death of Herod. This was Anno Augusto i, 
or B. C. 15. Its epoch for the Oriental provinces was September 
ist; for the Occident, September 24th. The Hebrew lunar calendar 
has a cycle of 15 years, during which the days of the septuary week 
return to the same days of the same month. 

16 years. — Geminus mentions an intercalary cycle of 16 and 
and another one of 160 years, to correct the departure from the 
moon in the octseteric period. Dodwell, de Cyc, p. 173, cited by 
Lewis, p. 119. 

18 years. (Approx.) — The Ecliptical cycle of 223 lunations. 

19 years. (Approx.) — Metonic cycle of 235 lunations. 

20 years. — Cycle of the Chibchas. See A. D. i in Ch. VII. 

24 years. — Cycle mentioned in Livy, I, 19. Macrobius, Sat. I, 
13, explains it by supposing that Numa was aware of the Julian year 
and used a triple octgeteris, /. <?., a cycle of 297 months, or, approxi- 
mately, 24 Julian years, to adjust his calendar. All this is possible, 
but it ill agrees with the preposterous 304-day year which the chro- 
nologists have attributed to the Roman lawgiver. 

25 years. — Eikosipentaeteris, or Apis cycle, strictly 24 years and 
359 days, or 309 lunations, q. v. Sapi is the Hindu word for a cow, 
from which Haliburton infers that Apis and Serapis are drawn. 
"Festival of the Dead," p. 83. Herodotus, in Clio 7, evidently 
used this period for a generation. For *' 505 " of his corrupt text, 
read 550, which, being divided by 22, gives 25 years. 

28 years. — Dominical cycle. If it were not for leap-years, every 
seventh year would bring the New Year day to the same day of the 
septuary week. In consequence of leap year, it requires 28 years to 
effect this return. Hales, I, 59. It cannot be older than tempo 
Nebo-Nazaru, when the septuary week was established in the Occi- 
dent, and it may not be older than than the Augustan period, when 
names were first given to such days by the Romans. 

30 years. — Druidical cycle (Pliny, N.H., XVI, 95) ; probably de- 
rived from the Jovian, the sexagesimal, etc. The same period was 
reckoned as a generation, an average reign, and "an Age," both by 
the Greeks and the Northern nations. Dio. Sic, book I, p. 65 ; Gres- 
well, F. C, Intro., 21; Pliny, II, 6; and Vettius Valens, lib. iii, p. 



CYCLES. 263 

90; the last named writers also call it the period of Saturn, which, 
however, is in fact, less than 29^ years. A 30-year cycle is men- 
tioned in the Rosetta stone. A 30-year cycle also belongs to the 
religion of les Chrishna. See '' Story of the Gods," IV, 4. Also 
to that of Mahomet. See A. D. 622. 

33 years. — Lesser Manvantara cycle. The usual lifetime or reign 
of astrological incarnations, or demi-gods, founded on the astrono- 
mical fact that it requires 33 years to carry the beginning of the lunar 
year through all the seasons to the same solar point and conjunction 
again. See Tatius under B. C. 769; Pisistratus, B. C, 527; Alex- 
ander the Great, B. C. 332 ; and Theodoric, A. D. 493. 

52 years. — Intercalary cycle of the Aztecs, who, every 52 years, 
added sometimes 12, sometimes 13, days to the equable year, to bring 
it to the Julian. See A. D. 1090. 

54 years, — Three Ecliptical cycles, aggregating 669 lunations, 
equal to, approximately, 54 years and one month. This cycle was 
used by the Chaldeans. 

59 years. — The cycle of 730 lunations, q. v. If 29^ days are 
reckoned to a lunation, 730 lunations would make 21,535 days, which 
is exactly equal to 59 equable years. These rude equivalents were 
employed by Philolaus the Pythagorian, who intercalated 21 months 
into this cycle, to adjust the equable and lunar years. Censorinus, 
XVIII. Greswell ascribes this cycle to QEnopides. See K.H., IV, 
639 n, and F. C., I, 577, 608. Lewis says it is defective and prob- 
ably corrupt. 

60 years. — Sexagesimal solar or sidereal cycle, a multiple of the 
Jovian. The Jovian cycle appears to have been used in the Orient 
as early at least as the 12th century B. C., but in Greece not earlier 
than the tenth century B. C. See Chapter V on the Jovian cycle. 

72 years. — A "taurus." The period of 72 years measured the 
manvatara of Manu. It is the interval during which the year of the 
Pleiades gains one day on the tropical year. Haliburton, " Festival 
of the Dead, " p. 99. On p. 59 of the same work he makes the Pleiades 
gain one day in 71 years and elsewhere one day in 71 3-7 years. This 
uncertainty hardly justifies him in applying the ' ' taurus, " as he does, 
to "the 72 sons of Noah." 

82 years. — Cycle of Democritus of Abdera, into which he inter- 
calated 28 months. Censorinus, XVIII. The sera of Democritus 
was B. C. 460-355, for he lived to the extreme age of 105 years. The 
cycle of Democritus seems to have been a lunar cycle of 1050 luna- 
tions, having for its equivalent a Julian solar cycle of about 82 years. 



a64 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

As shown by Sir George Cornewall Lewis, the cycle is faulty; never- 
theless it corroborates a knowledge of the Julian year at this early 
period. 

84 years. — The Jewish paschal cycle of 1039 lunations, was the 
equivalent of (approximately) 84 Julian years. It consisted of four 
Metonic and one octateric cycle. Greswell, F. C, Intro., 191 ; I, 68. 
This cycle was invented by the Jews. Brady. I, 294. It was invented 
by the Jews before the Christian aera, in order to determine the civil 
solar date of the Passover festival in a lunar calendar. Lyons, op. 
cit., p. 16. It was invented by the Jews during the Roman imperial 
age. Appleton's Cyc, art. "Chronology." 

90 years. — Graharparivritti cycles of sourthern India, the first 
one of which was fixed in the 3078th year of the Calijoga, or B. C, 
24. The Pandits' "Chronology." This appears to be a variation 
of the Jovian and sexagesimal cycles. The Pandits do not state 
whether the Graharparivritti cycles were sidereal or solar. 

95 years. — Augustan paschal cycle, consisting of five Metonic 
cycles, or 1175 lunations, the original epoch of which was the Ascen- 
sion Day of Divus Augustus Quirinus Dionysius, August 29th. This 
cycle has been employed to mark the return and week-day of Easter, 
by means of the Dominical letter in the series A to G. It is supposed 
to be mentioned in the Chronicle of Bede as the "laterculus septi- 
zonii," or septizodii. The date of Bede's Chronicle is commonly 
fixed in A. D, 731, but, as shown by Wright and others, no certain 
reliance can be placed upon this date as a guide to the age of the 
matters mentioned in the Chronicle. Rev. Dr. Greswell has proved 
that there is no historical warrant for attributing this cycle to Cyril, 
the *' Christian patriarch of Alexandria," in the fifth century, nor for 
attributing it to the particular period A. D. 437-52, as is done by 
Rev. Dr. Hales. Greswell has also proved that the original epoch 
of this cycle was August 29th. It is evidently an Augustan paschal 
cycle, vamped by the Latin church at some period later than the eighth 
century, by removing its epoch to Easter and attributing its inven- 
tion to an imaginary official. 

108 years, — A generation; according to some ancient authors. 
Nisard's Censorinus, note to chap. XVII. See 540 years, herein. 

110 years. — The Ssecular cycle, celebrated in Rome by the Ludi 
sseculares, or Saccular games, every no years. They are alluded to 
by Horace, Virgil, Suetonius, Pliny and numerous other Roman au- 
thors. Herodian, lib., II, p. 405, says that they were mentioned in 
the Sibylls. Dupuis, II, ii, 47, thinks they were of Bacchanalian 



CYCLES. 265 

(really Buddhic) origin. These games celebrated one-sixth of the 
Divine year (658 common years) of the Romans and Etruscans. 
Analogy suggests — though we have no record of the fact — that the 
22-3 months in excess of one-sixth of the Divine year, measured by 
this cycle, were anciently sunk from the calendar every no years: a 
suggestion that may throw some light on the 80 days deficiency which 
Csesar found in the calendar of Syllaand the two years of difference 
between Piso's sera of Romulus and the Italiote sera of Procas. For 
a similar practice see cycle of 116 years. The proper periods of the 
Ssecular games were A. U. no, 220, 330, 440, 550, 660, 770, etc.; 
and until the time of Augustus they were usually celebrated in those 
years. But that personage, in order to prove that he was the Mes- 
siah and Prince of Peace fortold in the Sibylls in connection with 
the sixth Ludi sseculares, sank 78 years from the Roman calendar 
and recelebrated the sixth as the seventh Ludi in A. U. 738, when 
he was apotheosised and proclaimed in Rome as the Son of God, or 
Mediator, inter dies et homines. The sunken period of 78 years was, 
many centuries later, reduced by the Christian church to 63 years, 
possibly by introducing the following superfluous years in the calen- 
dar, as indicated by the chronology of Nicephorus: in the reign of 
Tiberius, i; Nero, i; Pertinax, i; Diocletian, 2; Constantine II., i; 
Valens, 2; Theodosius, i; Arcadius, i; Leo, i; Justin, II, 4; total 
15. The new dates were then probably introduced into all the an- 
cient works that fell into the hands of the Sacred College. 

116 years. — Intercalary cycle of the Southern Indian Kollam 
sera, upon whose return 30 days are intercalated into a Julian Cal- 
endar. See A, D, 825, Southern India. 

120 years. — If instead of intercalating, as we now do, one day 
every fourth year, to bring the equable to the Julian year, we re- 
served these odd days until the 120th year and then added a civil 
month of 30 days to the Calendar, the final result would be the same. 
This sort of intercalation, marked by a great festival, is asserted by 
Prof. Flinders Petrie to have been practised in Egypt at a remote 
period. The festival is quite possible, but in assuming that it marked 
the antiquity of such an intercalation, that eminent Egyptologist is 
evidently mistaken. He quotes with approval Prof. Mahler of Vienna, 
who believed that he found the evidences of such an intercalation in 
an inscription of ''Thotmes III.," whom he dates in " 1503 to 1449 
B, C." It is plain that no festival which celebrated an equation of 
equable and Julian years could have been celebrated before the Julian 
year was known. It was certainly unknown to Herodotus, who 



266 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Studied in Egypt; and there is as yet no evidence which establishes 
a knowledge of it anywhere previous to the period of the Second 
Buddha. Albiruni, p. 12, says that the Persians of his time, about 
A. D. 1000, intercalated a month every 120 years. Hyde ascribes 
this cycle to Giemshid; but a Julian year of such antiquity is doubt- 
ful. As a Persian discovery it may have been, ancient enough to 
have been carried into Egypt when that country was conquered by 
Cambyses. But this is mere conjecture. It is the same with the 
thirty-day civil month, which the use of the 120-year cycle and the 
observance of the festival, implies. There is no evidence of its use 
before the period of the Second Buddha. On the contrary, the 
archcBological and literary evidences, prove the common use of a year 
of ten months each of ^6 days before that period: and Egypt was 
no exception to this rule. As to the credibility of Egyptian dates, 
the Rev. Dr. Greswell, who examined them with great care, long 
since pronounced a verdict which every fresh arch^ological discovery 
has only tended to confirm : they are utterly false and unreliable. 
In the effort to exaggerate their own antiquity and to conceal their 
racial origin, the Egyptians invented hundreds of imaginary gods 
and kings, whose fabulous exploits they commemorated in epigraphs 
of a long subsequent age. They were the worthy forerunners of the 
classical mythologists and the medieval monks. Prof. Petrie's re- 
marks appeared in the London Times of October 10, 1S97. Prof. 
Lauth says that the Egyptian cycle of 120 years was called Hanti, a 
word that suggests duality. He is therefore of opinion that this 
cycle was merel)' a double period of 60 years. Jules Oppert evi- 
dently regards it as aggregating 24 lustra. See 432,000 years, in 
which this combination appears. The reason for doubling the sossos 
or Jovian cycle of 60 years is suggested under B. C. 703, Persia, in 
Chap. VII hereof. It was to harmonise the ten and 12 months' 
years. It had previously been employed for this purpose in China. 
Prof" Lauth's statement is from Gustav Oppert, op. cit. p. ^;^^. 

160 years. — It is suggested by Geminus, Dodwell, Lewis, and 
the Encyc. Brit. Art " Calendar" that a cycle of this length was pro- 
posed by the Greek astronomers of the fifth or sixth century B. C. , 
for the purpose of synchronizing the Solonic lunar year of 6 X 30 
+ 6 X 29 = 354 days with the Julian year of 365^4^ days. The 
octseteris actually employed consisted of 354 X 8 -f- 3 X 30 = 2922 
days, which is 1.528 days, or about s^ hours short of 99 lunations. 
In 160 years, an interval twenty times the length of the oct^eteris, 
this would amount to about 30 days, or one month, which it is further 



CYCLES. 267 

suggested was proposed to be omitted from the calendar. The pre- 
sumption that the exact Julian year was known at this early period 
is explicitly contradicted by the testimony of Censorinus and it can- 
not be admitted without positive proof. The nearest approach to it 
was the year of CEnopides. See 365^ days, 1980 lunations and 16 
years. 

200 years. — Ducenarium, or * Muni-solar medieval cycle" of Ar- 
menia. Greswell, F. C, I, 561. 

247 years. (Approx.) — Thirteen Metonic cycles. See 3055 lu- 
nations. 

304 years. (Approx.) — Sixteen Metonic cycles. See 3760 luna- 
tions. Censorinus, XVIII, attributes this cycle to Hipparchus, who 
intercalated in it 112 months and called it the Great Year. See 608- 
year cycle. Dr. Greswell believes that this cycle (which implies a 
division of the year into 12 civil months averaging 30 days each, with 
five intercalaries) can be traced to India B. C. 946; but this is very 
doubtful. F. C, I, 68 71. Its attribution by Censorinus to Hippar- 
chus is far more likely to be correct. 

312 years. — Aztec cycle, composed of six luni-solar cycles of 52 
years. It is also connected with the luni-solar cycle of 200 years. 
Greswell, F. C, I, 561. 

360 years. — The Surya Siddhanta, I, 14, says that six times 60 
sidereal years make a " divine" year. This interval was evidently 
used as a means of harmonising the mean sidereal day of 23h. 56m. 
(approx.) and the mean solar day of 24h., the difference being 4m. 
(approx.) In six years (not 60 years, as stated by Greswell,) the dif- 
ference would be 24m. and in 360 years, 24 hours, or one day. It 
does not appear to have been connected (as Greswell supposes) with 
the cycle of the eclipses. 

418 years. — Cycle used by Ptolemy. It consisted of five and a- 
half Calippic cycles, each of (approx.) 76 years. Albiruni. 

500 years. — Chinese ' ' phen, " corrupted by the Greeks to ' ' phen- 
ix," or the so-called Phoenix cycle and supposed by Greswell to 
have consisted of exactly 500 years; but this period is as fanciful as 
the tale of the oft reincarnated phoenix bird, which is attached to the 
cycle itself. The various mss. of Pliny relating to this cycle (N. H. X, 2,) 
read 540, 511 and 560 years. Syncellus and Suidas say 654 years. 
Tacitus gives one of the phoenix periods at 146 1 years, which really 
is the Sothic cycle, q. v. Solinussays the phoenix cycle is not 540 but 
12,954 years, which is Cicero's Great Year and is really one-half of 
the Precessional Year. The phen, or phenix period was probably 



268 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the Oriental manvantara, or one-tenth of the Earth's life, which the 
Egyptians, when their year was altered from ten to 12 months, re- 
duced to one-twelfth; thus 6586-^12=550 years, (approx.) the prob- 
able Egyptian phenix cycle. See cycle of 550 years, below. In any 
case, it is astrological and not astronomical. 

504 years. — Cycle of Hipparchus. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. 

509 years. — Divine year of Manilius cited in Pliny, N. H. , X, ii,i. 
This is one-twelfth of 6108 years, q. v. 

511 years. — See 500 years. See also the pretended Hyksos pe- 
riod in chap. X. 

532 years. — The Dionysian cycle, or Divine year of the Dio- 
nysians, at the end of which Dionysius would return to earth and 
V inaugurate a new £era of peace and happiness to mankind. As this cycle 
was afterwards adopted by the church of Rome, called the Paschal 
cycle and employed to calculate the return of the moon, from which 
Easter is dated, its history may repay some research. 

I. The Dionysian cycle consists of 532 equable years and 140 days 
over; or of 532 Julian years and seven days over; or of 194,320 days; 
or of 28 Metonic cycles; or of 6580 lunar revolutions; or of 28 by 
19, the multiplication of a solar and lunar cycle of years. 

II. It is a compound of the Metonic and solar cycles; so that it 
not only gives the moon on the day of the 30-day month; it also 
gives the day of the septuary week of such moon. 

III. It was not used by the Greeks in their achme. They had no 
septuary week. It was not used by the Romans of the republic; nor 
by the Romans of the empire, until after the revival of the Dionysian 
cult. 

IV. It is pretended by the church of Rome and repeated by Blair 
and other chronologists that this cycle was employed by Victorius, a 
Christian monk, in A. D. 463. It is not disputed that Victorius em- 
ployed it; but no valid evidence has been offered to prove that he 
was a Christian and not a Dionysian monk. 

V. It is pretended by the church of Rome that this cycle was em- 
ployed by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian Christian monk, in A. D. 
524, to calculate the nativity of Christ. To this pretension it is to 
be objected that Dionysius Exiguus, as a Christian monk, in or about 
A. D. 524, is unknown to history; and that the chronological canon 
which goes by his name really measures a Dionysian Divine year from 
the Egyptian Apotheosis of Augustus B. C. 8, — who was worshipped 
as the incarnation of Dionysius — to the year imputed to Dionysius 
Exiguus, namely, A. D. 524; a circumstance that throws suspicion 



CYCLES. 269 

on its Roman and rather betrays its Alexandrian origin. Indeed 
some chronologists call it the Alexandrian cycle. An engraving of 
Augustus as Dionysius, taken from an antique statue, will be found in 
Duruy's History of Rome. Besides this one, there are innumerable 
ancient monuments in bronze and marble which attest the long and 
widespread existence of the Augustan cult. 

VI. The Dionysian cycle, or divine year, is mentioned by Albiruni, 
a Moslejm writer, A. D. 973-1048, who says that "the Jews had a cycle 
of 532 years, called the Major Cycle, consisting of 6580 months." 
(Albiruni, 4to. ed., 1879, P- 63.) This is unquestionably the same 
cycle. It is the degenerate descendant of the Buddhic divine year 
of 552 years. This Buddhic interval was a solar divine year; whilst 
its progeny was lunar. 

VII. The fact that the Dionysian divine year contains almost the 
same number of lunar months, (6580), as the Hindu divine year con- 
tains of astrological months, (6585^), maybe merely a coincidence; 
yet such coincidence could hardly have been without its influence in 
persuading the Dionysians to accept this cycle as their divine year in 
place of the Oriental one. 

VIII. The first valid mention of the Dionysian divine year as a 
Christian paschal cycle occurs in Argyrus, who wrote A. D. 1372 ; but 
there is reason to believe that its adoption as such is really due to 
Pope Gregory VII., A. D. 1080, in whose pontificate had occurred 
the reform of the Persian calendar by Omar Kayyam, A. D. 1079. It 
is also to be noticed that within a year or two of this date, the Ar- 
menians changed their divine year from 552 to 532 years, that is to 
say, from the ancient or Buddhic-Dionysian to the Augusto- Diony- 
sian standard. This last mentioned change maybe attributed to the 
influence of Rome. 

IX. Dr. Greswell reluctantly admits that the canon imputed to 
Theophilus of Alexandria was "set back purposely " from A. D. 385 
to A. D. 380, and that the canon of Dionysius Exiguus "was set 
back a paschal period of 532 years, from A. D. 524 to B. C. 9." 
(Read B. C. 8.) If it was really "set back" it must have been set 
back from the end of, at least, the second Augusto-Dionysian divine 
year, A. D. 1056; because, merely to set it back from the end of the 
first one, A. D. 524, was in fact not to set it back at all. Dr. Gres- 
well might have admitted much more and still have kept safely within 
the lines of historical candor and ecclesiastical prudence. 

540 years. — See 500 years and 2700 years; also 108 years. 
550 years. — Twenty-two Apis cycles each of 25 years. See Herod., 



270 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Clio, 7, and read 550 for 505 ; the former being evidently what was 
mednt by the historian. 

552 years. — Buddhic divine year. In Armenia, the first of these 
cycles began B. C. 552, the second A. D. o, or A. D. i (Greswell 
says A. D. 2) and the third one A. D. 552, while the fourth one should 
have begun A. D. 1104. But it appears that two or three years after 
the reform of the Persian calendar by Omar Kayyam, A. D. 1079, 
the Armenians prefered to compute time by Divine years of 532, in- 
stead of 552 years, thus following the example set them by the Jews, 
namely, of obliterating, by means of a lunar reckoning, the vener- 
able but now despised memorials of Buddha. Cf. Greswell, F. C, 
Intro., 17. 

555 years. — One-tenth of the cycle of Aretes. See 5S52 years. 

560 years. — See 550 years. 

600 years. — There is no known cycle of 600 years, either astro- 
nomical or astrological ; yet this measure of time was often used by 
ancient writers, for example, Herodotus, Josephus, Censorinus, and 
others. Bunsen offers an explanation of this period as used by Jo- 
sephus, but the explanation is far from satisfactory. See " Egypt's 
place in History," III, 3S7, 406. It appears rather to be a round 
statement of the Divine year, whether the latter consisted of 666, 
65S, 656, 608, 552, 550, or 532 years, which it did at various times 
and places. The dominant measures of the Divine year were the 
Brahminical of 65 S common years, the Buddhic of 552 years and the 
later Buddhic, or Dionysian, of 532 years; the others were only of 
local or transient acceptance. The custom of employing the phrase 
*' 600 years " for the Divine year may have arisen from the Chaldean 
metrological system, which was based on the fifth multiple of the 
period of Jupiter, thus, 12 X 5 = 60 x 10 = 600. These numbers 
appear upon our clepsydras, sun-dials and clocks, the origin of all of 
which was Chaldean. Haliburton, '"Festival of the Dead," p. 99, 
says that "the cycle of 600 years was the great lunar cycle or cycle 
of the Bull"; and he instances its employment in the 600 years of 
Noah, when the flood of waters was on the earth. There is hardly 
sufficient warrant either for the assertion or the theory. Consult 
note to Bohn's Pliny II, 9 (12), and see 7491 lunations herein. 

(598 years. (Approx.) — Thirty-two Metonic cycles, the double 
of the 304-year cycle. The cycle of 608 years (really 7520 lunations) 
was misleadingly called byHipparchus the Great Year, and mistaken 
by Gecdfrey Higgins for the Divine Year. The undue sanctity which 
the Greek astronomer attributed to this cvcle was derived from the 



CYCLES. 271 

same source as the sanctity of the Metonic or Golden Cycle: both 
of these cycles served the objects, by conserving and arranging the 
lunar festivals, of the temples. But in fact the 608-year cycle had 
nothing whatever to do with the Divine year, or with the Messiah; 
the years of whose reincarnation, sojourn upon earth, etc., though 
deduced from the lunar Cycle of the Eclipses, were invariably solar, 
and not lunar, nor luni-solar years. The priests of antiquity used 
to amuse themselves and mystify the vulgar by employing the nu- 
merical elements of this cycle (the Greeks expressed their numbers 
in letters) wi.h which to spell significant names. As no limits were 
set to the subdivision of the whole sum, it resulted that in fact almost 
any names could be spelled from it. Numerous examples occur in 
Higgins' "Anacalypsis " and Eadie's "Biblical Encyclopedia." Fora 
similar practice in more modern times see the 666-year cycle herein, 

630 years. — Divine year of the Etruscans, as shown by the inter- 
val of 105 years between the first four Ludi Saeculares known to Ro- 
man history. See chapter III herein. 

640 years. — Phenix period, or Divine year, supposed by Greswell 
to have been established B. C. 798, Greswell K. H., VI, 644. 

649 years. — Divine year of the Second Adventists. If the Cycle 
of the Eclipses be multiplied by 36, the quotient is 649 solar years 
and a fraction, thus 6585^ x 36 = 237,072 days -^ 365, (or 3653^ 
days) = 649 years and a fraction. This is the Divine year of the 
modern Christian sect called Second Adventists. It is as fanciful as 
any of the rest. It ignores the astrological construction of the an- 
cient Divine year and substitutes for it a basis which is partly astro- 
nomical; when, in fact, astronomy knows nothing of Divine years. 
It arbitrarily multiplies the Eclipse cycle by 36; whereas it might with 
as good reason be multiplied by 72, or any other number. By these 
means the Second Adventists predicted with confidence the end of 
the " Gentile times" which was to usher the Second coming of Christ 
on Easter Day, April loth, 1898. 

654 years. — The Phenix cycle of Syncellus and Suidas. See 500 
years, 

656 years. — Panionic cycle, or Divine year of the lonians. These 
years fell in B, C, 1248, and 592 and in A. D. 36. Greswell, K. H, 
HI, 373- 

658 years. — Divine year of India, Persia, Chaldea, Egypt, Greece 
and Rome. This year is based on the Cycle of the Eclipses, which con- 
sists of 223 lunations, or 6585^ days. Upon this astronomical fact 
was built the astrological fancy that the period of Days must be com- 



272 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

plemented by one of Months and by another one of Years. Hence 
a system of 6585^ days called "The Period"; of 6585^ months, 
(ten to the year, or 658 solar years), called the manvantara, or else 
the Divine, or Messianic year; and of 6585^ years, which was re- 
garded as the total Lifetime of the Earth, or of Mankind, when the 
World was to come to an End. Although the mischievous zeal of the 
Hindu priests has furnished us with a series of avatars and manvan- 
taras running back to the 68th Century B. C, there is no reliable 
proof that the Divine year, or any Divine year, was used before the 
fifteenth century B. C. in India, (sera of Chrishna,) or before the 12th 
century B. C. in the Greek states. All incarnations, or Divine years, 
relating to those countries before these dates, and many perhaps of 
later dates, are apparently of long subsequent invention. 

662 years.^A Divine year which is gained by omitting the last 
figure from 12 Armenian cycles of 552 years. It was used for a time 
in Etruria. See Chapter III. 

665 years. — A Divine year; origin, medieval. See 9977 years. 

666 years. — The Apocalyptic cycle, so called from its mention 
in the 13th chapter of Revelations. This is apparently an Egypto- 
Buddhic, or Osirian, form of the Divine year, employed in Egypt 
and in the Egyptian dependency of Syria. It was also used for a 
brief period in Etruria. See chapter III. This cycle results from 
dividing the Earth's Life of 240 million years by the ancient Hindu 
cycle of the Solar Precession, which was 36,000 years. The puerile 
practice of spelling names from any Greek letters which, when added 
together, are sufficient to compose the whole number 666, is alluded 
to in Eadie's "Biblical Encyclopedia," art. "Numbers." It appears 
that the names of Nero, Mahomet, Martin Luther, Napoleon Buona- 
parte, and other "enemies" of the Church, have thus been spelled 
out. 

1000 years. — The Hindus of Southern India divide the Kollam 
age (Parasurama) into cycles of 1000 years, or millenials. As the 
Kollam reckoning began in Calijoga 1927, equal to B. C. 11 76, the 
present, or current, period falls into the fourth millenial cycle. Thus: 
the First extends from B. C. 11 76 to B. C. 176; the Second, B. C. 176 
to A. D. 825; the Third, A. D. 825 to A. D. 1825 ; the Fourth, A. D. 
1825 to A. D. 2825. For a different reckoning of these millenials see 
B. C. 4825. For Abyssinian millenium, or Year of Grace, see A. D. 
1348 and Greswell, F. C, Intro. 16. 

1440 years. — Persian cycle, probably sidereal. Dupuis, III, 
", 339- 



CYCLES. 273 

1460 years. — The Sothic, or Canicular, cycle of Egypt. It was 
a sidereal cycle, which was reckoned from the rising of the dog-star 
at Heliopolis and was based upon the difference between the sidereal 
and tropical years, which in the interval of this cycle amounts to 
exactly one year: in other words, 1460 sidereal years equal 1461 trop- 
ical. The same difference exists between the Julian and equable 
years; hence 1460 Julian equal 1461 equable. An intercalation of 
one year at the end of the Sothic cycle restored the tropical to the 
sidereal and the equable to the Julian reckoning. The period when 
this cycle was first employed could hardly have been earlier than the 
employment of a Julian calendar in Egypt; and this, as shown under 
*' 3^5/4^ days," was about B. C. 547, the period of the second Hermes 
(Buddha). According to Censorinus, this cycle of 1460 years was 
mentioned by Aristotle. It is also mentioned by Horapollo, (Ptole- 
maic period), Dion Cassius, Tacitus and Theon of Alexandria. The 
last-mentioned authority states that the Sothiacal cycle of Egypt be- 
gan in the reign of Menephres, 1605 years before the termination of 
the ^ra Augusti. Upon the assumption that at the conclusion of 
the ^ra August! the latter was immediately followed by the ^ra 
Diocletiano, A. D. 284, then the ^ra Augusti ended with A. D. 283; 
and 1605 years before this was B, C. 1322; which therefore was the 
epoch of the Sothiacal cycle and the regnal year of Menephres. But the 
calculation is open to a question of several years concerning the be- 
ginning and ending (if indeed there was properly any ending,) of the 
^ra Augusti: the MSS. of Theon are somewhat corrupt; the period 
of the author is not certain ; and an Egyptian king called Menephres 
is unknown either to history or archaeology. The Sothiacal period of 
Theon begins with the sera of les Chrishna (see B. C. 1315); and as 
both the epoch of the cycle, Thoth ist, the Seven Stars of the Pleiades 
and the ceremonies observed at the rising of Sothis, were connected 
with the worship of lesiris, the period of Theon is probably nothing 
more than an astrological deduction connected with the pretended 
aera of the first Buddha, Osiris, or Hermes. However, the cycle 
itself is astronomical. Though it may be older in Egypt than the 
worship of Isis and Osiris, we have no proof of the fact. Halibur- 
ton connects the sidereal year with the worship of Osiris and makes 
the dates of the festivals such that they tally with our Cross Quarter 
days. The heliacal rising of the Pleiades in Egypt took place about 
30 or 40 days after the summer solstice, which would tally with Lam- 
mas ; the Festival of the Dead occurred at Martinmas ; and the feast 
of Lanthorns at Candlemas. 



274 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

1800 yearsi— See 21,600 years. 

2300 years. — Du Chesaux, a French biblical chronologist and 
Second Adventist of the last century, constructed a cycle of 2300 
solar years from the " 2300 days" of Daniel, viii, 14. Du Chesaux's 
cycle of years is composed of 122 Metonic, (lunar,) cycles and its 
equivalent in years is therefore inexact, because no whole number of 
lunar cycles will make any whole number of solar years, and if the 
2300 years be not exactly 2300 years, then there is no warrant for 
translating Daniel's "days" into "years." The author of this piece 
of patchwork invented two other "cycles" of similar construction 
and thus complacently alluded to his own handiwork : ' ' Who can have 
taught their author (here he means Daniel) the marvellous relation 
between the periods he employed and the movements of the heavenly 
bodies? ... Is it possible, considering all these points, to fail to 
recognise in the Author of these ancient books, the Creator of the 
heavens and the earth and of the sea and of the things which to 
them belong?" Chambers, "Astron.," 1890, II, 463. 

2484 years. — Lifetime of the World. Aristarchus, in Censo- 
rinus, XVIII. 

2520 years. — An astrological result attained by multiplying the 
number of eclipses in an Ecliptical cycle by the number of days in an 
ancient month, thus 70X36=2520. It is not known to what use, if 
any, this "cycle" was put. 

2700 years. — Hindu Cycle of the Lokkal, mentioned in the Pu- 
ranas and by Vridda Garga, an astronomer, whose asra is placed at 
the period of the Mahabharata wars. The Lokkal is sometimes called 
the Line of the Rishis. Rishi means an inspired writer (of the Vedas). 
The term Seven Rishis was also applied to the seven stars of Ursa 
Major, of which Marisha (Arcturus) is the leader. The Lokkal is a 
period of 2700 years, during which Ursa Major is supposed in the 
Puranas to make the revolution of the ecliptic, which the Hindus 
divide into 27 lunar mansions, or asterisms, thus giving 100 degrees 
of movement to each mansion. This cycle of 2700 years is men- 
tioned in the Brahma Siddhanta of Sacalya, but not in the Surya 
Siddhanta. The supposed rate of motion was rejected by Nrisinha, 
doubted by Bhascara and avoided by Muniswara in his Siddhanta 
Sarvabauma. Camalacara, while admitting that the Puranas affirmed 
the cycle and the rate of motion, seems piously doubtful about en- 
dorsing it. On the other hand, Lalla and Varaha Mihira affirm its 
correctness. Brennand, "Hindu Astron.," thinks that the 100 years 
solstice to an asterism is a mistake, for 1000 years, made in copying 



CYCLES. 275 

the ancient scriptures; the actual movement as determined by later 
investigation, being 960 years to the asterism, or 25,920 years to 
the Precession of the Equinoxes. He thinks that the Line of the 
Rishis, at the rate of 27,000 years to the Precession, was fixed so 
early as 1590 B. C. and that the correct period of the Precession 
(25,920 years) was known so early as the tenth century B. C. He 
goes on to say that "Although the epoch 3102 B. C. was probably 
arrived at by calculation backward, yet the epoch 1590 B. C. (the 
Line of the Rishis, commencing with the first of Magha) was one fixed 
by observation of the then astronomers and always referred to sub- 
sequently as the * Line of the Rishis ' then established." Op. cit., 82. 
According to Gen. Cunningham, the epochs of the Lokkals are fixed 
In B. C. 6777, 4077, 1377, A. D. 1323, etc., while Varaha Mihira 
and the later astronomers fix them in B. C. 6077, ^377, 677, A. D. 
2023, etc. Consult 21,600 years, farther on. 

3000 years, — Imaginary cycle of the metempsychosis, as men- 
tioned by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus. See Euterpe, 123. 
This cycle is also mentioned by Servius, a Latin grammarian of the 
fourth century of our sera. 

3600 years. — An astrological cycle mentioned by Dupuis and 
Greswell, the last of whom blunders in connecting it with the eclip- 
tical cycle. It is evidently the tenth power of the 360-year cycle 
mentioned in the Surya Siddhanta. 

5552 years. — An astrological cycle mentioned by Aretes of Dyrr- 
achium, cited in Censorinus, XVIII. 

6000 years. — Lifetime of the world, according to the ancient 
Hindu astrologers. This period has been variously fixed at 6000, 
6080, 6108 (Manilius), 6130, 6500, 6585^, 6586, 6600 and 6666 years, 
in each case the determination being based on the cycle of the moon's 
node as computed at various times. The notion was that the earth 
bore to the sun the same relation that the moon bore to the earth; 
and as the moon completed its nodical cycle in so many days, so the 
earth ran its course in the same number of years. During this life- 
time the earth would be regenerated ten times by the incarnations of 
the Creator, as Vishnu or les Chrishna. 

6585 2=3 years. — An astrological cycle consisting of ten Divine 
years, which, according to an almost universal belief among ancient 
nations, marked the Lifetime of the World, when it would come to 
an end and mankind would be summoned to Judgment before the 
Creator. See 6585 days, 6585 months, etc. The non-fulfillment of 
this prediction may have given rise to the expression in the liturgy 



276 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

of "world without end." The ten incarnations of Vishnu, the ten 
ages of Etruria, etc., were connected with this astrological conceit. 
Webster's Dictionary, article "Cycles," mistakenly alludes to it as 
"a period of about 6586 years, the time of the revolution of the 
moon's node, called saros." This cycle was evidently known to the 
Hindus at the period of the Indian expedition of Seleucus, because 
their Anno Mundi, as reported by Megasthenes, was based upon it. 
Indeed it may safely be carried backward to the period of the first 
Buddha, because the doctrine of the ten avatars, or avataras, was 
derived from it, or else from its teleological basis, which was the 
Cycle of the Eclipses. It lost credit with the learned after the dis- 
covery of the Precession of the Equinoxes. 

7777 years. — Cycle mentioned by Plutarch. Dupuis, III, ii, 

339- 

7980 years. — So-called "Julian " cycle, invented by Joseph Scali- 
ger, A. D. 1583, to avoid the uncertainty and complexity of astrol- 
ogical and religious seras. It was constructed by multiplying a solar 
cycle, 28 years, an indiction 15 years, and the approximate period of 
a Metonic cycle 19 years, thus 28 X 15 X 19=7980. The first year of 
this cycle was Year i of the Sun, Year i of a series of Indictions 
carried backward and Year i of the Moon; a triple conjunction that 
only happens once in 7980 years. In other words, during this inter- 
val "there are not two years which have the same Golden number, 
accompanied with the same Solar cycle and the same Roman Indic- 
tion." The first year of this period is 4713 B. C. , which was adopted 
because each of the three other cycles had the value of "one" in 
that year. This period will continue until the year A. D. 3267. 
Lockyer. The Julian cycle has been used by some astronomers and 
chronologists, but owing to its employment of the Metonic cycle, as 
though it were a solar one, which it is not, its further use is of doubt- 
ful wisdom. Its only practical recommendation is that of avoiding 
the inconvenient and confusing "A. D." and " B. C." periods, whose 
influence in muddling chronology and hiding the alterations of the 
Calendar is referred to elsewhere. 

9977 years. — An astrological cycle of 15 Divine years, each of 
665 common years. Dupuis, III, ii, 339, ascribes this cycle to Sex- 
tus Empiricus, who flourished in the third century of our sera. 

10,800 years. — One-half of the period accorded to the preces- 
sion of the equinoxes, by Heraclitus of Ephesus, B. C. 513. See 
21,600 years. Dupuis, III, ii, 339, ascribes this cycle to both Heracli- 
tus and Linus. 



CYCLES. 277 

10,884 years. — One-half of the equinoxial precession, according 
to Dion, in Censorinus, XVIII. 

12,000 years. — "The modern Parsee books" say that "12,000 
years is to be the term of the human race." Bunsen's " Egypt," ed. 
1859, III, 519. According to the Aitareya Brahmana, VII, 15, the 
terms Kali, Dvapara, Treta and Krta are derived from the ace, deuce, 
tre, and quart of the dice. From these elements the priests manu- 
factured the 1200, 2400, 3600 and 4800 years, which make up the 
12,000 years of these four ages. Gustav Oppert, " Bharatavarsa, or 
India," 1893, p. 328. All this is post-Buddhic. 

12,854 years. — One-half of the equinoxial precession, according 
to one MS. of Cicero, in Hortensium. See 12,954 years and cf. Gres- 
well, F. C, III, 211, «. 

12,954 years. — One-half of the equinoxial precession, according 
to another MS. of Cicero, in Hortensium. Servius ad^neid, iii, 284, 
says 12,954, while ad ^^neid, i, 269, he has 12,554 years. 

15,000 years.— One-half of the equinoxial precession, according 
to Macrobius. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. 

18,000 years. — Brahminical cycle of the equinoxial precession. 
This appears to be merely an inference drawn from the allowance of 
1800 years to the zodion, as explained under 21,600 years, q. v. If 
so, it belongs to the period of the Brahminical restoration, which 
succeeded the introduction of Buddhism. Dupuis, III, ii, 339, who 
ascribes this cycle to Heraclitus (fl. 513 B. C.) cites Plutarch, de 
placit. philos. , I, ii, c. 32, and Stobseus, phys., I, i, c. 11. 

19,440 years. — Hindu equinoxial precession of 54 years to the 
degree. Asiat. Res., vol. II, 238. 

21,000 years, — Cycle of the Apsides. "The line joining the 
aphelion and perihelion points (of the earth's orbit), termed the line 
of apsides, changes its direction at such a rate that in 21,000 years 
it makes a complete revolution . . . In A. D. 6485 the perihelion 
point will correspond to the vernal equinox." Lockyer, 216. In B.C. 
4004 it had to start at the aphelion . . . This was the year when, ac- 
cording to Greswell, the Universe was created; hence from B. C, 
4004 to A. D. 6485 is 10,490 years, which is one-half of the cycle of 
the apsides. The full cycle, according to Greswell, is therefore 20,980 
years, or 20 years less than Lockyer's cycle, which, if Greswell is 
right, began 20 years before the Creation of the universe ! Accord- 
ing to Andrew Laing, " Human Origins, " (pp. 301-310,) 21,000 years 
represents the precession of the equinoxes. In this statement he is 
opposed to all modern observation. 



27^ A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

21,600 years. — The most ancient Greek measurement of the pre- 
cession of the equinoxes ; that made by Heraclitus of Ephesus, who 
flourished B. C. 513. It gave 2160 years to the zodion, equal to 
21,600 years to the zodiac of ten zodions. When the zodiac was di- 
vided into twelve zodions the precessional movement became 1800 
years to the sign. Higgins, in his Anacalypsis, II, 397, has evidently 
confused these details. It also consists of eight Indian lokkals each 
of 2700 years, and may be of Oriental origin. See 129,600 years. 

24,000 years. — Indian cycle of the precession; according to. 
Bailley, Drummond, LeGentil andDupius III, ii, 289, most of whom 
regarded it to be as ancient as the sera of the first Buddha. See 
Buddha, p. 6, in " Story of the Gods." The 24,000-year cycle was 
used by Aryabhala and other Indian astronomers, A. D. 499, all of 
whom appeared to have been either ignorant or disdainful of the very 
different determinations of the Greeks. (Cf. Duff Rickmers, ^j.) 

24,800 years. — Cycle of the precession according to Cassini : 
eighteenth century. 

24,925 years. — The sum total of the reign of gods, heroes and 
kings in Egypt, according to Manetho: evidently an astrological 
farrago based on the cycle of the equinoxial precession. 

25,200 years. — Cycle of the precession as determined by Ulugh 
Beg, A. D. 1447, viz., one degree in 70 years. 

25,748 years. — According to Rev. Dr. Hales, Chron., p. 78, the 
cycle of the precession was computed by Hipparchus at 50^ s. per 
year, or a revolution in 25,748 years. Contrariwise, Sir Geo. Corne- 
wall Lewis says that Hipparchus computed the precession at not less 
than 36 nor more tlian 59 seconds to the year. This would make the 
cycle vary from 36,000 to 22,000 years, and render the computation 
of little value. See 25,920 years. 

25,812 years. — Cycle of the precession. Dupuis, I, 119. Appar- 
ently modern. 

25,816 years. — Cycle of the precession. Tycho Brahe : sixteenth 
century. 

25,820 years. — Cycle of the precession. Riccioli: 17th century. 
The Hindus are also said to have had the same determination: date 
not given. Drummond ascribes it to the "ancient Persians." 

25,868 years. — Cycle of the precession. Sir John Herschel. 

25,908 years. — Cycle of the precession. Tacitus, de Orat., XVI, 

25,920 years. — Cycle of the precession, as computed by Hip- 
parchus, according to Higgins, Anacal., I, 194, and Hislop, ^'■666," p. 
192. But Greswell, F. C, III, 460, and K. H., II, 48, says that Hip- 



CYCLES. 279 

parchus reckoned 100 years to to the degree : hence 100 X 360 = 
36,000 years to the cycle, while Lewis says his computation varied 
from 22,000 to 36 000 years. 

25,972 years, — Cycle of the precession, according to Rambos- 
son, one of the most recent writers on the subject. 

27,000 years, — Hindu cycle of the precession, computed, accord- 
ing to Brennand, in 1590 B. C. and corrected to 25,920 years so early 
as the tenth century B. C. See 2,700 years. 

36,000 years. — Hindu cycle of the precession. Dupuis, III, ii, 
157. For its attribution to Hipparchus, see 25,748 and 25,920 years. 

36,525 years. — Astrological Annus Magnus of the Ptolemaic 
Egyptians, produced by multiplying the Sothiacal cycle of 146 1 
equable years by 25 years, the measure of the Apis cycle. Syncellus, 
in Greswell, F. C, III, 39; Bunsen, III, 67. It embraces " 30 dy- 
nasties in 113 descents." Gustav Oppert, " Bharatavarsa," p. 331. 
"Among the Egyptians there is a certain tablet called the Old Chron- 
icle, containing 30 dynasties in 113 descents, during the long period 
of 36,525 years." F. Hall's edition of the Vishnu Pur'ana, I, 49; 
Cory's " Fragments," p. 89. This is mere astrological nonsense, 
which could hardly have been invented earlier than the Ptolemaic 
period. 

39,180 years. — The Babylonians fixed the deluge of Adrahasis 
39,180 years before their "historical" period, B. C. 2517. Jules 
Oppert believes the first figure to have been made of 12 Sothiacal 
cycles, each of 1460 years, plus 12 "lunarcycles," each of 1805 years; 
or of 653 sossos, each of 60 years. The last is possible; the first is 
inadmissable until a lunar cycle of 1805 years is established. See 
22,300 lunations. Gustav Oppert's " Bharatavarsa, " p. 331. 

100,020 years. — Cycle of Orpheus, in Censorinus, XVIII. 

129,000 years.— Cycle of Plato. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. 

129,600 years. — Chinese cosmic cycle, probably modern and 
evidently composed of six Hindu precessions, each of 21,600 years. 
Messrs. CroU and Laing have improved on this. 

210,000 years. — Cycle of the eccentricity of the equinoxial pre- 
cession, consisting of ten precessions, each of 21,000 years; a recent 
discovery of Croll, cited by Laing, "Human Origins," 311. 

300,000 years. — Astrological Great Year of Firmicus, who is 
said to have flourished A. D. 334-55. Greswell, F. C, III, 38. 

350,635 years. — Cycle of the "restitution of Saturn," accord- 
ing to Achilles Tatius, an Alexandrian ecclesiastic of the sixth cen- 
tury. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. 



28o A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

400,000 years. — Astrological Great Year of the Hindus, which 
began with Calijoga B. C. 3102, and is called the Age of Degeneracy. 
Halhed's Hindu Code of Manu, p. xxxviii. 

432,000 years. — Chaldean astrological cycle mentioned by Bero- 
sus in Syncellus. This is probably 12 precessions of 36,000 years, 
or else one-tenth of the Hindu cycle of 4,320,000 years. Jules Op- 
pert, who is high authority in oriental religions and astrology, says 
it is probably gained by multiplying two sossos by twenty-four lustra, 
thus 60 X 60 X 24 X 5=432, 000. ' 'La poeme Chaldeen du deluge, " Paris, 
1885, cited approvingly by Gustav Oppert, librarian of Calcutta. If 
this is correct it proves the use of the lustrum, pentseteris, or five- 
year period, by the Babylonians and by the Hindus, from whom the 
Babylonians got the 432,000-year cycle. 

1,600,000 years. — Hindu astrological Dvapar Joga, ending with 
the commencement of the Calijoga. Halhed, op. cit. 

1,753,200 years. — " Great Year "of Nicetas Acominatus, a By- 
zantine historian who died A. D. 1216. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. 

2,400,000 years.— Hindu astrological Tirtah Joga, (Age of 
Sin,) the institution of which ended with the commencement of the 
Dvapar Joga. This cycle implied acceptance of the doctrine of Orig- 
inal Sin. Halhed, op. cit. 

3,200,000 years. — Hindu astrological Age of Purity, which ended 
with the Downfall of Man and the commencement of the Treta Joga. 
Halhed, op. cit. 

3,600,000 years. — Astrological cycle of Cassander, in Censo- 
rinus, XVIII. 

4,320,000 years. — Hindu astrological cycle, representing the 
Lifetime of the World. Dupuis, I, 164, believed that this was gained 
by adding together the first, second, third and fourth powers of 43 2, 000 

years. 

6,570,000 years.— Cycle of Diogenes. Dupuis, III, ii, 339. It 
appears to be a multiple of the Divine year, 

240,000,000 years. — Astrological Lifetime of the World, con- 
sisting of 6666 precessions of 36,000 years each; a Hindu concert, 
probably ancient. 



28l 



CHAPTER IX. 
CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. 

THE chief sources of error in chronology and of confusion in 
ancient history are, First, the employment of lunar calendars; 
Second, the alterations in the year of Rome and the Olympiads which 
were made by Augustus as afterwards modified by the Latin Sacred 
College: and Third, the employment of "A. D." and " B. C." dates. 
The confusion produced by lunar, or luni-solar, calendars has been 
of so varied a character that it is difficult to convey an adequate ap- 
preciation of it to persons not especially skilled in chronology. Suf= 
fice it to say that such calendars have been used as artifices to shuffle 
out of view the most significant customs and important events: with 
the object to substitute in their places the myths and fables of su- 
perstition. The ancient priests made such liberal use of these artifices 
that it may be asserted with little fear of contradiction that history 
only begins with the establishment of solar calendars; and that pre- 
vious to this first charter of human progress, for such it is, there is 
nothing recorded which possesses any historical value. The confu- 
sion occasioned by alterations of the calendar will be illustrated by 
some examples further on. The inconvenience of "A. D." and 
"B.C. " dates was realised three centuries ago by Scaliger, who sought 
to remedy it by offering to the world the so-called Julian ^ra. Al- 
though but little use has hitherto been made of his suggestion, it can 
easily be shown that this is a reform which, shirk it as we may, must 
nevertheless precede any attempt to establish upon a sure foundation 
such literary fragments and archseological monuments of the past as 
time and proscription have spared to the modern world. 

Take, for example, the text of the present work. Chapter VIII, 
year 1503. There it says that "to made the true date, deduct the 78 
years sunk by Augustus. " It seems strange that to make a true date 
we should have to deduct a number of years which have in fact already 
been sunk from the tables of chronology ; yet this is quite right. In 
correcting dates thus vitiated, the same number must be deductedixom 
' 'A. D. " dates which have to be added to " B. C. " dates. The proof 
of this is readily seen by referring to the intervals between the divine 



252 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

years in Tables A and D. Moreover, the reader will discover that 
the Eeras of les Chrishna, Buddha, Augustus and Jesus are all one and 
the same ; and that they have only been made to see7?i different through 
the misleading media of altered calendars and seras. 

In the foregoing Chronology numerous examples have been given 
of calendrical alterations; it is now proposed to add some others from 
extraneous sources. 

Tacitus, in his Annals, XV, 41, says that the interval of time be- 
tween the Foundation of Rome and the Burning by the Gauls was pre- 
cisely the same as that between the Burning by the Gauls and the 
conflagration in the reign of Nero. According to our present chron- 
ology the Foundation was in B. C. 753 and the burning by the Gauls 
in B. C. 384. This is an interval of 369 years. From the burning by 
the Gauls to the conflagration in the reign of Nero, July, A. D. 64, 
is 447 full years and a fraction. Deduct 369 from 447 and the quo- 
tient is 78 years, which is the measure of the excess of the later period 
over the earlier one. Tacitus says that in fact the two periods were 
exactly equal : our chronology makes one of them longer than the 
other by 78 years. It is impossible that 78 years of chronology and 
history could have been fabricated and stuffed into the most recent 
and best known annals of Rome. The calendar of the later Repub- 
lican and early Imperial periods of Rome may have been altered to 
the extemt of ten or 15 years without attracting attention; but not 
to the extent of 78 years. The alteration, whenever it was made, 
must therefore have been attached to a period long past, that is to 
say, to the earlier period, before B. C. 384. The nature of the altera- 
tion was therefore to sink 78 years from the calendar. Who made 
this alteration ; when was it made; what was its object? Remember 
that Tacitus was a priest and a member of the Sacred College of 
Rome, and therefore one whose statement on this subject possesses 
the full force of official authority. The subject has thus far been 
blinked by historians and churchmen, but it should be blinked no 
longer. Where are those 78 years of Roman experience and of Ro- 
man history? Is mankind to be perpetually robbed of that valuable, 
that inestimable portion of its inheritance which is to be found in the 
history of the greatest state of antiquity? 

Tacitus Annals, VI, 28, says that from the third Ptolemy to Ti- 
berius "the interval is not quite two hundred and fifty years." Ac- 
cording to our chronology the interval between the first regnal years 
of these monarchs, B. C. 247 to A. D. 14, is 261 years. Here is a dis- 
crepancy of eleven or more years, probably of 15 years, the number 



CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. 283 

of years inserted into the calendar by the Latin Sacred College. 
In the first example, the recensors employed by the Latin Sacred 
College evidently made no alteration of the dates in the text; prob- 
ably for the reason that not being specific, their significance was not 
perceived. In the second one, the dates were practically specific; and 
the recensors, in order to make them conform to their general system 
of chronology, were obliged to alter them. That they did their work 
badly was no fault of the men, but of the system. 

The Ludi Sseculares were required to be celebrated once in no 
years. Augustus celebrated them in B. C. 15. They were next due 
in A. D. 94, or 95. But " Claudius," (says Suetonius,) "assuming 
that Augustus had wrongfully anticipated the Ludi Saeculares, and 
that he had celebrated them out of their true season, caused them to 
be re-celebrated," after an interval of 78 years. ^ Suetonius says 
that several persons took part in both of these Ludi, which could 
hardly have been the case had they been 78 years apart. Pliny even 
names one of these persons. The interval between the Ludi Sseecu- 
lares of Augustus and Claudius, which was really 78 years, is stated 
in modern editions of Pliny, N. H., VII, 49, at only 6$ years. This 
must be the work of the Latin Sacred College, which gave us our 
present mutilated mss. of the Roman encyclopedist. The reduction 
of the 78 years of calendrical alteration eifected by Augustus, to the 
6;^ years of dislocation shown in Pliny, could not have been effected 
in the days of Pliny, but is evidently the work of long subsequent 
ages. Tacitus says that "the chronology of Augustus differed from 
that of Claudius," which is precisely what we are endeavouring to 
prove. But in the face of the worship of himself as the Son of God, 
which Augustus had established, the true chronology of Claudius had 
no chance to succeed; and it fell before the false chronology of Au- 
gustus; so that the next Ludi were celebrated by Domitian in A. D. 
94, or 95. The 6^ years of dislocation in the calendar of Rome, which 
was mainly created by Augustus (/. e., 78 years, less 15 years, since 
restored) and which Claudius tried in vain to rectify, still remain. 
We are in fact 6;^ years farther from the reputed Foundation of Rome 
and the events connected with that period than what our chronology 
permits us to believe. As Augustus sunk his 78 years from a remote 
period of Rome's history, his alteration of the calendar may be re- 
garded as having no longer any practical importance. But this would 

'It is not known how far this attempt of Claudius to restore the chronology of Rome 
was carried. It evidently failed with his death, when the Augustan chronology was 
everywhere revived. 



284 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

be a mistake; because such alteration vitiates all foreign dates which 
have to be converted into Roman. The 15 years restored to the 
calendar by the Latin authorities stand in a worse category. The 
canon of Nicephorus perhaps indicates in what manner these 15 years 
were restored to the calendar; but no matter how or when it was done, 
it has robbed us of the knowledge of that due succession of historical 
events which would enable us to utilise the experience of the past. 
Until our chronology is rectified, Roman history will have to be writ- 
ten over and over again, without its being able to impart to mankind 
any convincing lessons in either religion or politics. " The laws rela- 
ting to religious matters were kept secret by the Pontiffs that they 
might hold the minds of the multitude in bondage," said Livy (VI, i). 
" The chronology of Augustus differed from that of Claudius," said 
Tacitus. "Roman history has been falsified and its monuments de- 
stroyed," said Plutarch (on the Future of the Romans). From these 
deliberate verdicts of antiquity there can be no appeal, except to 
archaeology and a scientific arrangement of dates. 



Pausanias, I, 379, says that the Third Age of Greece began in Olym. 
xxiii, 4, that is, B. C. 685. But the Third Age was the aeraof Nebo 
Nazaru and Phoroneus, B. C. 748; (see chapter VI;) a difference of 
just 6^ years from the date in Pausanias, the text of which has evi- 
dently been altered since the time when the 63 years difference was 
fixed. As previously shown, this was done probably during the pont- 
ificate of Gregory VII. 



Dunlop calls attention to several anachronisms and chronological 
puzzles some of which appear to have arisen from the repeated altera- 
tion of the Roman calendar. For example, Attius the comic poet, 
was born B. C. 170; yet this same Attius refused to rise from his seat 
in the College of Poets upon the entrance of Julius Caesar, who was 
not born until B. C. 100 and would hardly have entered the College 
until B. C. 70, when Attius was long since dead and buried. Cicero, 
who was born B. C. 106 and wrote his "Brutus" in B. C. 45, says 
that he consulted this same Attius concering the merits of that work. 
According to the received chronology the dead poet was still living. 



Catullus, the poet, died, says Eusebius, in A. U. 696, others say 
A. U. 705 ; yet Cicero records that Catullus' satire upon Caesar and 
Mamurra was newly written in A. U. 708, when Csesar rewarded the 
deceased poet for it with a supper! Other instances of this sort ai'e 



CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. 285 

mentioned in Dunlop's "Roman Literature," vol. II, pp. 195, ^04, 
220, 223, 231, 232, 239 and 275 and in the last chapter of Michelet's 
"Roman Republic." 



The chronology of Albiruni gives the following dates: From the 
"first year" of Cyrus to the "reign" of Alexander, 222 years; to 
the iith-century-Jewish-and-Christian date of the nativity of " Mes- 
siah," 304; to the "first year" of lesdegird, 638^ years; total, from 
Cyrus to lesdigerd, 1164^, or, from Alexander to lesdigerd, 942^ 
years. The discrepancy between this and the chronology which is 
accepted at the present time is about 15 years. 



It was the custom of the Romans, upon a general and permanent 
peace, to close the temple of Janus Quirinus, the Prince of Peace, 
probably as a sign that no further supplications or sacrifices of lambs 
were to be exacted or required. Ovid, Fasti, I, 283, gives the poet- 
ical reason that Peace was locked within, that it might not escape; 
but at present the origin of the custom is of no consequence. The 
temple is said to have been first closed at the termination of the first 
Punic war, when Titus Manlius was consul. Livy, I, 19; Veil., II, 38; 
Serv. Virg. , I, 294; VII, 607. Livy fixes this date in A. U. 519; 
Lenglet, A. U. 513; and Adams, A. U. 529. Odd as it may seem, 
all these dates appear to be correct; Livy's date being the basis of 
the others. Adams' date is due to the ten years' difference between 
the Greek and Roman Anno Mundi ; while Lenglet's date shows the 
15 years' alteration of the Augustan dates effected by the Latin Sa- 
cred College. It may be added that the Temple of Janus was closed 
a second time before Augustus closed it thrice at short intervals. 
Suet., August., 21. But even about the second closing, (to saynothing 
more of the first), there is a contention, which is due entirely to the 
mischievous and perplexing shifting of the calendar, already so often 
mentioned in this work. 



Mionnet's voluminous work on Ancient Coins, Paris ed, 1806-37, 
describes a number of Roman imperial coins, commencing with Nerva 
and ending with Alexander Severus, the dates upon which are evi- 
dently in the regnal year of Augustus, B. C. 28. These dates should 
therefore be 28 years older than the Christian regnal years of the 
sovereigns whose effigies and names are associated with them. But 
in fact they are all, without exception, just 43 years older; proving 
that 15 years have since been sunk from the Christian sera, A. D., by 



286 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

adding that number of years to the Augustan sera, B. C. For exam- 
ple, the coins of Geta are dated " 255." According to the received 
chronology this sovereign began to reign and died A. D. 211-12. The 
difference between 212 and 255 is 43 years, making it appear that his 
coins were dated in an sera which began B. C. 43 ; whereas no such 
sera is known and it is evident from other circumstances that the sera 
intended was that of Augustus and the Foundation of the Empire. 

Diadumenianus is another sovereign who reigned but a single year, 
which, according to the received chronology was A. D. 217-18. Yet 
his coins, also evidently dated from the regnal year of Augustus, bear 
the figure "261." Deduct 218 from 261 and the remainder is 43; 
whereas, if the Christian chronology were correct, there should only 
be a difference of 28 years, that being the number of years B. C. when 
by such chronology, the Empire was founded by Augustus. 



From the first year of the last Vicramaditya, the son of Bahram- 
Gur, A. D. 441 or 442, (a date reckoned from the Calijoga,) to the 
Hegira, A. D. 622, (a date reckoned from the Christian sera,) the Hin- 
dus compute 196 years; yet, according to our chronology, the differ- 
ence is only 181 years: a discrepancy of 15 years. Col. Wilford, 
Asiat. Res., IX, 202. 



The Hindu date when the Vernal equinox corresponded with the 
first point of CarticaisB. C. 1426; while according to "modern com- 
putation" it was B. C. 1350. Brennand's "Hindu Astronomy, " p. 54. 
Here is a discrepancy of 76 years, the same as is shown in our chap- 
ter on the Ludi Sseculares, This interval leads to the suspicion that 
the " modern computation " cited by Brennand is based on an Augus- 
tan, not a Christian year. 

These evidences concerning the dislocation ot Roman chronology 
could be continued almost indefinitely. Enough has been shown to 
prove to the most unwilling reader that the calendar has been altered 
and that, in this respect and the important consequences that flow 
from it, the Christian world has been grossly deceived. 



287 



CHAPTER X. 

MANETHO'S FALSE CHRONOLOGY. 

MANETHO, an Egyptian priest, in the service of Ptolemy, sur- 
named the "Saviour," one of the minor "incarnations," to 
whom fell a portion of the vast empire established by that greater 
incarnation, Alexander of Macedon, has left us, in fragments pre- 
served and perhaps altered by Berosus, Josephus and Syncellus, a 
list of Egyptian dynasties and kings, which, if correct and successive, 
and if to each were allowed twice or thrice the ordinary regnal period 
of earthly potentates, would carry the government of Egypt back to 
a remote antiquity. Manetho's list gives us 30 dynasties, which for 
convenience have been divided by modern commentators into the 
Old, the Middle and the New empires. The Egyptologists accept all 
this as authentic and fancy they see a confirmation of it in the monu- 
ments. 

If there is any truth at all in Manetho, such truth is limited to the 
regnal names of the New Empire; for his kings of the Old Empire, 
as such, never existed at all; and those of the Middle Empire are 
largely apochryphal. Such in effect was the opinion of Petavius, who 
so long ago as 1627 came to the conclusion that "the Egyptian dyn- 
asties are fabulous." Wilkinson, Hincks, Greswell and other more 
modern critics have come to the same conclusion: the chronology is 
false and worthless. Even Bunsen, who attempted to restore the 
chronology, which he "analysed in connection with the Scriptural 
data " (Egypt, I, 253) completely failed. Syncellus said that Manetho 
was "led astray," while Bunsen condemned both Syncellus and Ma- 
netho, charging the latter with nothing less than patchwork, fraud 
and imposture. (I, 228.) 

Josephus, who was anxious to prove the great antiquity of the Jews, 
and to corroborate their story of the exile in Egypt, very cleverly 
made use of Manetho's account of the conquest of that country by 
the Hyksos, in assuming that the latter were Jews; but, like most 
casuists, he proved to much. Here is his statement: "I will set 
down Manetho's very words, as if I were to bring the man hinself 
into court as a witness. ' There was a king of ours (says Manetho) 



288 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

whose name was Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not 
now, that God was averse to us, and there came, after a surprising 
manner, men of ignoble birth, out of the eastern parts, and had bold- 
ness enough to make an expedition into our country and with ease 
subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle.' " Manetho 
then gives the names and regnal periods of the first six stranger 
kings, viz., Salatis, 13; Beon, 44; Apachnas, 13^; Apophis, 61: 
Janus, 50; Assis, 49; altogether, 230^ years. " These people," con- 
tinues Josephus, still quoting Manetho, "and their descendants kept 
possession of Egypt 511 years. Then the Egyptians under King 
Alisphragmuthosis rose against them and in the reign of his son, Thum- 
mosis, they induced them to depart to Judea, where they built Jeru- 
salem," Such is Josephus' case. As to his own account of the period 
of this pretended invasion of Egypt by the Jews, namely, " 393 years 
before Danaus came to Argos " and of their removal to Judea, namely, 
"almost a thousand years before the siege of Troy," it adds nothing 
whatever to his case; because we know that the events themselves 
never took place; that Danaus was merely the Hindu sign of the zodi- 
acal Archer and that the siege of Troy was a mythos. Egypt was not 
conquered by the Jews, but by the Hyksos. Nor is the date true even 
when applied to the Hyksos, for " Danaus in Argos " relates to the 
feigned incarnation of les Chres, the Son of God, from whom and his 
Eight curetes in the island of Crete, Danaus brought the Word which 
made him (a fabulous) king of Argos. The date of this incarnation 
was approximately B. B. 2064. That of the next one, Jasius, with his 
Tendactyles, also of Crete, was approximately B. C. 1406. This was, 
approximately, the date of the actual invasion of Egypt by the H3^ksos. 
By confusing the two incarnations, the shrewd Josephus added 658 
years to his proofs of Jewish antiquity. But the whole thing is fabu- 
lous; the Exile, the Eis-o-dus, or Exodus, the incarnations of Chres 
and Jasius, and the six kings who reigned 230^^ years, these are all 
plainly astrological. Even Timaus, who, according to Manetho, lost 
Egypt to the Hyksos, was obviously meant for Tammuz, Son of God, 
the Mighty in battle, the Nissus of the XXIVth Psalm, the Jasius of 
the Cretans, the Dio-Nissos of the Athenians, the god who was wor- 
shipped by Manetho's royal master: in other words, an astrological 
myth, in whose heavenly character it is evident that Manetho, a priest 
of the old school, did not entirely believe. This is the witness whom 
Josephus, an ancient Roman casuist and the Egyptologists who are 
modern casuists, call to support their several contentions : a Greek fab- 
ulist, steeped in astrology and cunning, ready, even out of the word 



MANETHO'S FALSE CHRONOLOGY. 289 

' * Hyksos " to coin the lies of ' ' Shepherd kings " and ' ' Captive-kings, " 
whereas, as shown by Pococke, it was merely the proper name of the 
Scythian tribe, the Hucsos, who issued from the Euxine and overran 
Egypt. To crown all, Josephus himself, in another place, calls this 
same Manetho, his own witness, an arrant liar. (Contra Apion I, 27.) 

All the ancient peoples believed themselves to be autochthonous 
and each affected to trace their origin from the gods. The Chinese, the 
Indians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Jews, the Egyptians, the 
Greeks, and even the Romans, all followed the same practice. Con- 
sequently they carried their chronologies back to the remotest pe- 
riods, when, according to their several beliefs, man first lived in civ- 
ilised communities. The Chinese annals begin with Fo-hi — aBuddho- 
Solar divinity — and their cycles of time, with the accession of Yao, an 
impersonation of the planet Jove, whom they called a Son of God, and 
whose aera, according to Father Du Halde (I, 282), was B. C. 2337, 
or according to Bunsen (III, 388) B. C. 2163. The Calijoga of the 
Brahmins began B. C. 3102; the Buddho-Brahmins carried their se- 
ries of incarnations far beyond this period; and their successors the 
Brahmo-Buddhists (the existing Hindus) carried theirs still further. 
Neither of them altered the Calijoga; thev merely belittled its an- 
tiquity by creating still more ancient aeras. 

The "History of Assyria," which was written by Herodotus and 
to which he refers in his Clio, 184, has not been permitted to reach 
us. It is abundantly evident that his surviving work was tampered 
with, both before and after the asra of Christianity. Yet it still re- 
tains traces of the incarnations of Bel, or Bel-Issus, or the Lord les, 
born of the Virgin Semiramis, or Semia-rama, the Divine Token, 
which Philo Byblius, following Sanchoniathon, fixed about the end 
of the 15th or the beginning of the 14th century B. C. and the eccle- 
siastical writers Eusebius, Syncellus, Helvicus and Petavius, carried 
backward a Divine Year earlier, to about B. C. 2064. The earliest 
Assyrian date which is clearly mentioned by Herodotus, does not 
carry us beyond the epoch of that incarnation of the deity who was 
known in Assyria as Tiglath Pil-Esar II., and in Babylon as Nebo- 
Nazaru, or Nabon-Issa, B.C. 747. The astronomical observations, 
which, during the Alexandrian gera, were carried by Berosus from 
Babylon to Cos, only extend backward to the same period. This was 
also the limit of Ptolemy's astronomical records. Yet Aristotle is made 
to say that the Chaldean observations extended backward twenty 
centuries and Rawlinson assures us that their exact date is inscribed 
upon the baked-clay tablets found in the ruins. He says they com- 



290 A NEW CHRONOLOGY 

menced B. C. 2234. Unless the clay tablets were fabricated after the 
period of Tiglath-pil-Esar II., in order to carry the Assyrian line of 
incarnations one Divine Year further back than the Belus of B. C. 
1406 and they fell under the observation only of highly privileged 
persons, like Aristotle, it is inexplicable that they were but imper- 
fectly known to BerosuSj who had been a priest of Belus at Babylon 
and was an astronomer and the author of a history of Chaldea; and 
it is astonishing that they should have been ignored by Ptolemy, who 
was also an astronomer. It was Frcret's suspicion that these tablets 
were anachronical forgeries; a suspicion that is reduced almost to a 
certainty by their duodecimal division of the year; for, at the period 
to which they refer, the Assyrian and Babylonian years were ir point 
of fact divided into ten months and not into 12, as the Egyptolo- 
gists imagine; the division into 12 months being always Buddhic or 
Bacchic, and that too of the second Buddhic period. 

When we come to Greece- Egyptian chronology it is evident that 
the subject is obscured by fables and impostures of the grossest de- 
scription. The 341 historical kings and the period of 11,340 years, 
from Menes to Sethon, (Euterpe, 142,) is obviously an astrological 
mythos. This period, if wo allow 26 years for the reign of either 
Menes or Sethon, amounts to an average of exactly 33^ years, to 
each reign, thus 341X33^^=11,366. Now deduct this number from 
12,000, which according to Le Gentil, was half of the Processional 
Year of the Hindus, (and therefore also of the Egyptians), and the 
remainder is what? Precisely 660 years, a Great Year, the period of 
an incarnation, the annualised cycle of the Moon's node, the sixth 
power of the ludi sseculares. In other words, when the astrological 
dynasties of Egypt ended in Sethon, who was a priest of Vulcan, and 
when, in consequence of that misfortune, the empire split up into a 
dodekarky, the rival priests of Apis hailed as their incarnation, the 
Over-lord of the Twelve, who, when he had overthrown the rest, 
reigned as Psammetichus. To complete the mythos and the Great 
Year the priests were obliged to predict another incarnation who was 
to come one divine year later. ^ Herodotus is careful to tell us that 
these dates are from the Egyptian priests. Manetho, who abused him 
for his caution, (Josephus on Apion, I, 14,) fills up the idle tale with 
the names of kings who never existed and of whom no genuine re- 

' One divine year after the Psammetichus brings ;he computation to the incarna- 
tion of Augustus ; thus 673 less 658 equals 15, the year B. C. cf Augustus ; or 666 
(Bunsen) less 658 equals S, the year B. C. of Augustus in Egypt. The whole thing is 
astrological. 



MANETHO'S FALSE CHRONOLOGY. 291 

mains have ever been found. Mr. Laing, in " Human Origins," after 
dividing this nonsense by two, accepts a moiety. But why divide it 
by two; why not accept the lot, aye, even the ** fifteen thousand years 
since Bacchus" of the Egyptian priests (Euterpe, 145;) or the "sev- 
enteen thousand years before the reign of Amasis," when, according 
to the same mendacious authority, the Egyptians changed their gods 
from Eight to Twelve (Euterpe, 43 and 156;) or the 24,000 years of 
gods, heroes and kings, which make up Manetho's full precessional 
list? Bunsen, i, 69, says 24,935; but in being thus precise this 
Egyptologist has overshot his mark.'^ 

It is only too evident that, except perhaps a name here and there 
and except the dynasties of the New Empire, Manetho's lists are 
worthless. The supposed corroborations upon the monuments found 
in recent years, amount to nothing; for many of these were altered 
in ancient times by the erasure of certain names and the substitution 
of others.^ The only Egytian date which has survived the wreck of 
time is the so-called sera of Menephres, B. C. 1322, preserved by 
Theon. This may have once been regarded as the pera of the so- 
called New Empire which began immediately after the expulsion of 
the Hyksos. But we now know that the pretended aera of Menephres 
is merely astrological. Bunsen computes that during the (supposed) 
511 years of the Hyksos in Egypt they had 65 kings; an average of 
about eight years to each reign. Add these 511 years to Theon's 
1322 and we have B. C. 1833 as the earliest date which the ancients 

^ Josephus says the Hyksos reigned 511 years ; Brugschsays five dynasties aggrega- 
ting 500 years ; Laing says one dynasty of 259 years, contemporaneous with the 
Theban dynasty, which reigned over Upper Egyyt during 260 years. Brugsch shows 
that during the strictly historical period, that is to say, from the beginning of the 
XXVIth dynasty B. C. 666, to Alexander the Great, B. C. 332, (an interval of 334 
years,) there reigned in Egypt 24 kings, an average of about 14X years to each reign. 
Previous to this period he has, besides the Hyksos, 106 kings reigning between B.C. 
4400 (Menes) and B. C. 666. Deduct the Hyksos interval of 500 years, leaves 3234 
years with 106 kings, an average of 30^ years each ; which is double the ordinary 
measure. As the periods of the 106 kings are computed by assuming their reigns in 
most cases to have lasted 33 years, or an average of 30^ years each for all of them, 
and as the actual reign during the historical period was only i\% years, it cannot be 
regarded as unfair if Brugsch's 30 j^ are reduced to 14^ years. In such case 106x14^ 
=1537 years, will cover all the dynasties except the Hyksos, from Psammetichus 
B. C. 666 (or B. C. 673) back to Menes. Add Mr. Laing's 260 years for the Hyksos 
and we have the following result : 666 plus 1537 plus 260=2463 B. C. for the ^ra of 
Menes, if indeed Menes ever existed at all, which is much to be doubted ; for the sera 
to which this computation assigns him is itself astrological. It is that of les Chres, 
the Cretan son of God. 

^This is abundantly shown by Perrotand Chipiez," Egyptian Art.," I, 233, 244. It 



292 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

preserved of any supposed historical event relating to Egypt, beyond 
the fact that some kind of people must have dwelt there whom the 
Hyksos conquered ; and that some of these may have left monuments. 
But all these dates are unsafe; for the asra of Menephres proves to be 
merely a Sothic astrological period and the 511 years sojourn of the 
Hyksos, a fragment of the Buddhic astrological circle of 550 years.* 
Indeed, the invasion, (not the sojourn) of the Hyksos is about the 
earliest well authenticated event that we know of concerning ancient 
Egypt; and it is doubtful if more than a few of the existing monu- 
ments are earlier than that period. Manetho, indeed, says that the 
Hyksos destroyed everything; but as Josephus himself remarked, 
Manetho is not to be trusted, and as the antiquarians Perrot and 
Chipiez distinctly assert, this is false; for the Hyksos left the earlier 
monuments unmutilated, and so they stand to-day. 

The oldest sera of the Greeks, B. C. 2064, was that of the mythical 
Chres and his Eight curetes or apostles, who were called the Danoi. 
This was a legend of the sun-worship, the date of its invention being 
unknown. The next oldest was the Brahminical myth of Jasius and 
the Ten dactyles of Mount Ida, whose sera was one Brahminical cycle 
(658 years) later than Chres, or B. C. 1406. Then we have the aera 
of Ischenou, B. C. 1219. Finally, in B. C. 748 (another 658-year cycle) 
we havelacchus, Inachus, or Bacchus, and the Twelve apostles: only, 
be it observed, that these dates have often been confused. Chres has 
been put for Jasius and Jasius for Chres. For example, Herodotus 
(Euterpe, 145) shifts Bacchus into the period of Chres, or Cres, by 
alleging that he was born at Nyssa in Ethiopia (evidently to account 

has also been shown by Maspero, Naville, Edwards and others. "The names and 
titles of Rameses II. were reengraved over the erased names of Usertesen III. and 
other earlier kings." . . . "The royal ovals on the front of the throne (of the colossal 
Hyksos statue found at Bubastis and now in the British Museum) had been erased and 
reengraved by Rameses II., the vacant spaces at each side being filled in with six col- 
umns of inscription in honour of Osorkon II. Here, then, was a twofold usurpation 
(and forgery) and no trace left of the original legend " (inscription,) " The name of 
Apepi (a Hyksos king) has been hammered out, but is still traceable on the right 
shoulder (of another statue) the place being reengraved with the cartouches of Mene- 
ptah." . . . "Maspero has discovered that the cartouches of Piseb-khanu are also 
carved over an erasure." " ' The work of Ramesis II. at Bubastis (Tel Basta) was 
chiefly a work of usurpation,' " (wrote M. Naville, who in 1889 discovered these re- 
mains.) " ' I never saw so many erased inscriptions. I have very carefully examined 
all the large architraves, upon which the hieroglyphics measure two feet in height, and 
there is not one which is not engraved upon an erased surface.* " Amelia B. Edwards, 
in the Century Magazine, January, 1890. 

•* See Chap. VII, under ' 500 years," for a " phen " of 511 years mentioned by Pliny. 



MANETHO'S FALSE CHRONOLOGY. 293 

for his woolly head) "about 1600 years before my time "; whereas it 
is quite evident from what he says in Euterpe, 43 and 145, and from 
what Sanchoniathon says of the Cabirim, that the system of Eight gods 
preceded that of Twelve, and that Bacchus was connected with the 
latter and not with the former.^ It is also evident from Euterpe, 51, 
that Herodotus himself was a worshipper of Bacchus and an initiate 
of the Eleusinian mysteries. 

The Hebrew aeras and chronology were based upon the pedigrees 
and lives of their kings, heroes and patriarchs, until they ended (or 
began) with Adam, whose sera they calculated backward to the year 
B. C. 3760. The rabbis even gave us the day and hour of his birth. 
This was exactly one divine year before the Calijoga, and beyond any 
doubt whatever, it was based upon that ^ra. 

The Roman sera, B. C. 753, is evidently another perversion of one 
of the Bacchic incarnations: for it roughly agrees with the period 
when Numa is said to have changed the yearof the Romans from 10 
to twelve months and added two more gods, Janus and Februus, to 
their theogony. (Livy, I, 19; Plutarch in Numa, I, 83). The Roman 
chronology of the Augustan sera did not ascend beyond the Bacchic 
period. For example, Julius Caesar, who was annointed in the Sera- 
pion as the Son of God, December 25, B. C. 48, claimed his descent 
through Venus, the Mother of God, who was a divinity of the Bacchic 
cult. 

We have now before us all the more important aeras and chronolo- 
gies known to the ancients. Their earliest plausible dates in the 
Orient were China, 2163, and Brahminical India, 3102, B. C. In the 
Occident the earliest plausible dates were, Assyria, 2064; Egypt, 2064; 
Greece and Rome, 2064, and Judea, 3760, B. C. To begin with, all 
these dates are those of avatars or incarnations. They are not histo- 
rical, but astrological; and, as matters of fact, are not worth a mo- 
ment's consideration. As matters of ancient opinion, however, they 
furnish us with useful guides to chronology and an important histori- 
cal inference. The inference is that when they were offered for pop- 
ular belief their authors knew of no older dates ; and this inference, 
if well founded, completely destroys both Manetho's chronology and 
the deductions which have been drawn from it. 

For example, if the Greeks before the Alexandrian aera had any 
reason to suppose, either from the written histories or monuments of 
Egypt — both of which were familiar to them, for the men who left us 

^ The text of Herodotus omits to mention the intermediate system of Ten gods: an 
almost certain indication that it has been "revised." 



294 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the Rosetta Stone could certainly read the hieroglyphics better than 
we can — that there was any Egyptian history earlier than their own 
Cres (or lacchus), they would most likely have ascended to a higher 
date, in order to prove, as Herodotus says the Phrygians did, (Eu- 
terpe, 2,)that their own incarnation was the more ancient and vener- 
able. If the Jews, whose sacred books are credited to an earlier period 
than the Alexandrian sera, and whom it must be supposed were also 
acquainted with Egyptian literature and archaeology, had any reason 
to believe that the Egyptian annals ascended higher than their own 
date of B. C. 3760, they would scarcely have been content to place 
the birth of Adam in that year. It is the same with all the others. 
Each nation of antiquity went back far enough in its chronology to 
prove itself to be heaven-descended. It results that none of them 
suspected that the civilization of Egypt or Chaldea was believed by 
anybody to be more ancient than the date affixed to their own civil- 
isation; and as they lived from two to three thousand years nearer to 
the beginning of Egypt and Chaldea than the modern Egyptologist, 
we are compelled to prefer their testimony to his. That testimony is 
to the effect that Manetho's dynasties are false; and that few or none 
of the Egyptian or Chaldean epigraphic monuments are older than 
about B. C. 1500 to 2000. The further inference to be drawn from 
this comparison of seras is, that if we consider the Orient and Occident 
separately, the longest or most ancient chronologies are those which 
were probably fabricated latest; and the longest tale of all was that 
of Manetho, 



295 



CHAPTER XI. 

FORGERIES IN STONE. 

JUST as there is scarcely a writing of the past that has not been 
corrupted, so there is scarcely a piece of ancient sculpture in our 
museums that has not been mutilated. The eminent antiquarian 
Feuardent accused Gen. Cesnola, or the professors and artists who 
worked under his directions, or upon his advice, of "building up" 
his collection of Cypriote antiquities, or at least a part of it, with frag- 
ments belonging to originally unconnected figures. The curators of 
the Roman museums did all this and much more. They altered the 
attributes of the marble deities and effaced the names of the artists 
who sculptured them; they forged names and dates; they mutilated 
zodiacs and planispheres; they obliterated some inscriptions, interpo- 
lated others, and deliberately destroyed those which they did not 
choose to alter or efface. Dr. Clarke alleges that such has been the 
fate of all the antiquities of the Crimea. In 1893 I had occasion to 
examine some ancient coins in the Paris Collection and while doing 
so I alluded, in hearing of the Assistant Curator, M. Cazenove, to 
the ancient year of ten months. To this M. Cazenove, albeitin many 
respects an accomplished numismatist, replied that there was no an- 
cient year of ten months. It was in vain that I cited Livy, Ovid, 
Virgil, Censorinus, the numerical names of our months, and other 
evidences. He would not have it. Even when one of the other 
Curators came to my support, M. Cazenove continued to deny the 
ancient division of the year into ten months, On this subject there 
exists such an ample accumulation of evidences that only he who does 
not wish to believe, can fail to be convinced on the subject. To this 
evidence I propose to add, by way of example, the testimony of two 
stone monuments now in the Louvre. One of these is a Roman sun- 
dial and calendar, which has been altered from ten to twelve months, 
the other is an Egypto-Grecian planisphere similarly altered, but con- 
taining more convincing evidences of the forgery. 

Roman Sun Dial and Calendar, Louvre, Mu., No. 2. This is a work 
of Pentilicon marble, discovered in the spring of 1792, at Gabies, by 



296 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Gavin Hamilton, a Scotch painter. ' It has probably been altered or 
restored by Franzoni and was formerly in the Villa Borghese, Salle 
de Gabies, No. 16. 

The modern parts are the heads of Mercury, Vulcan, Neptune, 
Juno, Apollo, Minerva and Jupiter; the lance and a piece of the 
table; the ends of the noses of Venus, Cupid, Mars, Diana and Ceres; 
Vesta's chin; nearly all of the lamp belonging to Vesta; the screech 
owls; the ram; the dove; finally the left arm of the Virgin. 

This unique monument has severely tried the sagacity of the learned, 
who do not yet agree upon its signification. It is apparently com- 
posed of two different parts, independent of each other. In the 
middle of a circular table, is a sort of flat hollow, forming a patella, 
or disc, on which is (now) sculptured the heads of twelve Olympian 
divinities. All these heads appear full-faced with the exception of 
Ceres. From left to right they appear in the following order: 

Neptune; on his left, a trident. 

Juno crowned; to the left, a sceptre. 

Apollo; his hair wreathed with a strophe; on his left, a sceptre. 

Minerva, helmeted; on her right, a lance. The crown of the hel- 
met is decorated with a seated sphinx. Two screech owls are perched 
upon the volutes of the visor, 

Jupiter; on his left, a thunderbolt. 

Venus crowned; on her left, a sceptre. Between Venus and Mars 
is placed a nude Cupid with its arms around the necks of the couple. 

Mars, beardless; his helmet ornamented with griffins. 

Diana; with bow and quiver over the left shoulder. 

Ceres; (Visconti says Vesta;) the head bound with a strophe, turned 
towards Diana. 

Vesta, (Visconti says Ceres). 

Mercury, beardless; a winged wand on his left, 

Vulcan, a round bonnet on his head, a sceptre on his left. 

Upon the edge, or periphery of the table, are the twelve signs of 
the zodiac, accompanied by the emblem of the tutelar divinity who 
presides over each month of the year. These signs and emblems do 
not correspond with the heads carved upon the fiat of the disc; and 
most of the conjectures that have been brought forward to establish 
their connection, have only served to complicate the subject. The 

^ Gabies, or Gabii, about 16 miles E. S. E. from Rome, possessed a temple of Juno, 
in which that goddess was worshipped with peculiar ceremonies, the priests wearing 
their dress in a characteristic manner. Virgil's ^neid, vii, 612 and 682. 



FORGERIES IN STONE. 297 

eminent antiquarian Visconti is of opinion that we have here a veri- 
table Roman calendar. 

The heads of the five divinities, Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Ceres and 
Diana, seem to correspond with the months indicated by the zodiac 
upon the edge; but not so the other seven gods. 

Ceres has preserved the place she occupies in the zodiacal system; 
Mars and Mercury have changed theirs; the union of Mars with Ve- 
nus and of Mercury with Vesta (or Ceres) is apparently maintained 
with design ; Diana and A-pollo are opposite each other. Most of this 
is the result of modern alterations. 

All that can be positively afifirmed is that this monument belongs 
to the Roman religion, the god Mars being there represented by a 
she-wolf; that it was probably made by a Roman artist, the diameter 
of the patella measuring exactly one Roman cubit, or about 17^ 
inches; that the zodions of the 12-sign zodiac are not complementary 
with the heads of the gods ; that the sculptor apparently wished to 
create an astronomical instrument, the moveable surface of which 
could be turned according to the march of time, or the wants of the 
operator; that the hollow in the middle of the disc, now composed of 
a vast number of small pieces not all of them antique, served as a 
sun-dial, because traces of the needles that pointed out the divisions 
of time and the thin plates of metal that upheld the hemisphere, can 
still be seen. 

There can be no question that this monument was originallp sculp- 
tured with ten gods, which were afterwards altered to twelve; hence 
the incongruity between the figures on the disc and those on the per- 
iphery: the latter being probably of later date than the former. 
To these incongruities the modern " restorer " has added his own. 



The Egypto-Grecian Planisphere, Louvre Mu., No. 4. This relic 
of antiquity consists at present of two fragments of white marble, 
which were excavated from a trench upon Mount Aventine in Rome 
during the year 1705. It was formerly in the Vatican Museum. It 
is a fragment of a Greco-Egyptian planisphere, reconstructed in 1705 
by Francesco Bianchini, a Catholic antiquarian and astrologer of 
Verona. 

The engraving is traced with a point (a graving tool) upon a slab 
of square marble, each side of which measures 28^ inches, that is to 
say, exactly two Roman feet. 

The radius taken between the exterior border of the medallion and 



298 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the inner border of the great circle measures 7^ inches, or exactly 
ten Roman digits. The diameter of the large circle is 27 digits. 

Three-fourths of this interesting monument are lost or mutilated; 
the remaining portion only enables us to conjecture the principal de- 
sign, not to reconstruct the whole. 

B. de Montfaucon, in his "Antiquity Explained " (t. I, pi. 234, and 
suppl. ; t. I, 17 b, p. 43) published a fragment of a similar planisphere, 
a plan for the restoration of which he found among the manuscripts 
of Peiresc, 1580-1637, at the Saint Victor library. 

The middle medallion represents a large bearded serpent, or 
dragon, turned to the left, the head turned downwards. In the folds 
of the serpent, which take the form of an S, are seen two she-bears 
with open mouths, a little one running to the right and a larger, and 
higher, one running to the left. It is easy to recognise in these the 
two familiar constellations of the Northern heavens: the Little and 
Great Bear. 

This medallion is surrounded by four concentric circles, divided 
into 12 parts (dodecatemoria) by means of 12 straight lines, which 
start from the centre. These lines may be wholly or partly modern. 
The middle zone encloses a zodiac of ten signs. 
Humboldt discovered in these signs certain analogies with the an- 
cient Hindu zodiac. The Horse, which corresponds with our sign of 
the Lion, occupies the same place in the Tartar, Hindu and Tibetan 
zodiacs. The Eagle, (?) Dog, and Serpent are met with not only 
among the Oriental zodiacs, but also among those of aboriginal 
Mexico; while the Goat occupies one of the lunar mansions of Hin- 
dostan. 

The two other circles enclose the signs of two Egypto-Greek zo- 
diacs, one of 12 and one of ten signs. There is no difference, either 
in the figures or the costumes. The marble here is much mutilated. 
The omitted signs are the Archer and Fishes. An attempt, however, 
has been made to insert the Archer, so that there are permissably 11 
signs. The Ram and the Bull are decorated with dorsal bandelets, 
such as were put upon the victims on the day of sacrifice. The Twins 
are represented by a nude youth carrying a club, and a nude girl with 
dishevelled hair, who, with one hand holds a lyre, resting upon a cip- 
pus, while her right arm is locked about her brother's neck." 

Cancer has the usual form, of a crab. The Balance is held in the 

2 The Count de Clarao's engraving of this monument is not exact. See Hugin, As- 
tronomicon, ii, 22, p. 472. 



FORGERIES IN STONE. 299 

lowei-ed right hand of a young man, clothed with a chlamys. The 
Archer is represented by a Centaur letting fly an arrow. The double 
line which separates these two zodiacs may signify the Equator. 

We arrive at a narrow border encumbered with Greek numerical 
signs, most of them in relief, a few of them engraved with the trait. 
As there are five such signs to each of the twelve constellations of 
the inner zodiac, Bianchini held that these numbers represented the 
epagomena, which the Greeks placed under the special guardianship 
of the five planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. M. 
Lebroune treats them as mere gnostic absurdities. 

With one exception, the signs of the 12-sign zodiacal planisphere 
agree with the lists of Ptolemy (Tetrabillon, I, 21) and of Julius Fir. 
micus Maternus, (Astronomicon, ii, 6.) 

The letters employed differ from the ordinary alphabet, e. g., in the 
form of the st'gma, which is replaced by a Roman S. As to those which 
are engraved with the trait, (namely, the first sigma of the Ram, 
omega of the Bull and omega of the Balance) their object is not dis- 
cernible. 

In the original design the 36 days of the month are followed by 
secondary divinities who presided over the ten months of the year. 
Of these divinities only eight are left, differing from one another in 
form, costume and attributes. These are in a procession towards the 
right. 

Chontare has the upper part of the body naked and he carries a 
two-edged sacrificial axe upon the left shoulder, as if he were going 
to sacrifice the ram of the zodiac. Chontachre, with a hawk's head, 
holds a ring in the lowered right hand. Some years ago this ring 
held a cross, but this has recently been chiseled away. Seket, clothed 
with a mantle, holds two rings, which also held crosses, which have 
recently been chiseled off. Choon, with a jackal's head, is also clothed 
with a mantle. Ero, nearly all destroyed, carries a sceptre. The 
fragment of the lower part commences with the i8th, or middle day, 
of the month, or Aphoso, the upper part of whose body is naked. He 
carries a ring (which some years ago held a cross) in his right hand 
and a stick in his left. Souchoe and Ptechouli, both draped in the 
same manner, have their right hands advanced, and in the left, each 
holds a ring, from which the pendent cross has been destroyed. Chon- 
tare, again, with the bull's head, the upper part of the body naked, 
carries a sceptre. 

It is unnecessary to remark that these figures are not strictly 
Egyptian. In passing into the domain of Greek astrology they un- 



300 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

derwent modifications which altered their previous character. Among 
the later modifications is the mutilation and chiseling of the crosses. 

The proper names given above are Grecianized after Hephistion's 
list.^ Upon the periphery of the central design are placed .the busts 
of the seven planetary gods, at the rate of three gods to each con- 
stellation. These gods can be easily recognised by their attributes. 
(See Lersch, Bonner Jahrbiicher, vol. IV, p. 163.) 

Cronos, or Saturn, is clothed with a mantle; the head is veiled; 
he holds a harp. Zeus, or Jupiter, carries a sceptre; Ares, or Mars, 
is helmeted; he has a large belt over the left shoulder and is armed 
with a lance. Helios, or the Sun, wears a chlamys over the shoulder; 
his head is encircled with seven rays. Aphroditus, or Venus, is nude; 
she is decorated with a necklace and holds in her left hand a mirror. 
Hermes, or Mercury, has a winged head and a wand in his hand. 
Selene, or the Moon, has a crescent above the forehead. The heads 
of these divinities are each backed by a disk, halo, or nimbus, similar 
to those of the later Byzantine saints. 

If the restoration of the destroyed parts is correctly surmised, it 
will be seen that, after the system of Ptolemy, the seven gods are re- 
peated five times. Mars, by opening and ending the procession, 
makes the 36th god, answering to the ^6 days of the month in the 
year of ten months. 

Formerly the four corners of the marble were occupied with the 
effigies of the four principal winds. Only one is left, perhaps the 
easterly wind, Subsolanus, who blows to the right. His hair is di- 
shevelled and upon the forehead is an ornament which one might take 
for a pen. An analogous bust is seen among the fragments of Peiresc, 
previously mentioned. All the parts engraved with traits were origin- 
ally painted red. As to the age of the monument it can scarcely be 
much earlier than the Ptolemaic period. 

When the planisphere was reconstructed, the following inscription 
was put upon it: "Fragmentum planisphcerii, ursarum et draconis 
imaginibus inscripti iuxta Phenicios et Grfecos, necnon XII aster- 
ismis borealibus Chalda orum et signis zodiaci, decanis ac terminus 
./Egyptiisviiplanetarum. EffossuminmonteAventino,annoMDCCV. " 

The following table shows the two Ten-sign zodiacs of this calen- 
dar and the one mentioned by Baron von Humboldt: 

^ Biot, " Memoires de I'Academiedes Inscriptions," 1S46, vol. XVI, ii, p. 88: Abbil- 
dungen, " Symbolik," pi. 19. The hieroglyphic groups are reunited after R. Lepsius, 
"Chron. Egj^).," I, 66-77, 551. 



FORGERIES IN STONE. 



301 



Egyptian, ten signs, 
Exterior zone. 


Chaldean, ten signs, 


Hindu, ten signs. 


Middle zone. 


Humboldt. 


Twins 


Serpent 


Fishes 


Crab 


Crab 


Bull 


Lion 


Horse 


Horse 


Virgin 


Lion? 6 


Virgin 


Balance 


Goat 


Balance 


Scorpion 


Cow 


Warrior? 


Goat 


Eagle 


Dwarf 


Aquarius 


Bear 


Man-lion 


Ram 


Quadruped * 


Bear 


Bull 


Dog 


Tortoise 



The Ten Syrian Months. 
Nicholas. (4), 

Sabat 

Adar 

Nissan 

lyar 

Sivan 

Thamuz 

Ab 

Eloul 

Tesri 

Kanun 

Such is a faithful description of these marbles at the present time. 
The nature of the alterations makes it evident that a portion of them 
were effected in ancient times in order to conceal the Ten months 
year, while another portion were made in modern times in order to 
efface those sacred symbols which we have borrowed from obsolete 
religions and falsely claim to be peculiar to our own. Perrot and 
Chipiez, " Egyptian Art," I, 233, 241, inform us that King Psousen- 
nes carved upon the sphinxes of a Hyksos monarch, his own false 
and anacronical cartouch. Are we, who deface and pervert the re- 
ligious monuments of the past, any better than the royal Egyptian 
forger? 

^ To these ten months were afterwards added Tisri II and Kanun II, making twelve. 
These duplicate months were inserted (at least they so appear now) immediately after 
those of the same names. The Jews had the same months, except that they added 
Heshvan and Tebet, after Tisri and Kanun and changed the latter to Kislev. In 
their lunar calendar they also had a 13th month, which was added in embolismic years. 
This was called Adar Sheni. The solar year commenced on or about the vernal equi- 
nox and with the suggestive month of NTssan. 

* Mutilated; hind-part only reiriains of what seems to be a lion. 

^ Mutilated; possibly a deer. 



302 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MESSIAH. 

HISTORIANS of the Roman republic have too commonly betrayed 
a tendency to find the cause of its decline in the working of 
some one or other defective institute of that great state, some insti- 
tute that was especially inimical to the writer, as the establishment 
of colonies, the unequal distribution of opportunity, wealth, lands, 
or political power, or the growth of slavery, or the evils of the mon- 
etary system. But a broader survey of the subject rather leads to 
the conclusion that no single cause is sufficient to account for the 
devolution of events which followed the Punic wars. The downfall 
of the republic and the erection of the empire appear to have been 
due in part to all of these circumstances and perhaps also to others, 
among not the least of which were religion and the various branches 
of knowledge and belief upon which religion was founded. After 
striving in vain to uphold the tottering republic, Cicero lived long 
enough to perceive that the catastrophe was inevitable and that 
neither could he retard it, nor Caesar accelerate it.' Rome was no 
longer a small commonwealth of free citizens, rendered more or less 
equal in rank by a substantial equality of fortune, attainments and 
political power. It had become a populous and unwieldy empire, 
composed of many conquered nations and tribes, differing in race, 
religion, language, history and degrees of social development. Th^ 
republican constitution, which had sufficiently well fitted the infancy 
of this state, and which, had the state grown less rapidly, might have 
been gradually altered to suit its greatly altered manhood, was, under 
the circumstances, antequated and useless, as a means of repressing 
disorder, or preserving the peace. This constitution had been over- 
thrown by Marius and Sylla. The Civil Wars had supplemented the 
existing orders of priests, patricians, plebians and slaves, with what 
was substantially a new social caste, the equites, or knights — the fu- 
ture farmers of the revenues and the lords of feudal manors. When 

^ " Cffisar is no less under the control of circumstances than we are under the con- 
trol of Cassar." Letter of Cicero to Papirius Paetus, dated A. U. 707? 



THE MESSIAH. 303 

to the already vast territorial possessions of the Commonwealth were 
afterwards added nearly the whole of Transalpine Europe, and of 
Asia Minor and Egypt, the republican constitution utterly broke down. 
The year that saw Porapey invested with the supreme power of the 
Roman State, added further dignities and privileges to the new order 
of aristocrats. * These developments of caste were sure presages of 
the Empire. " 

In both of the last dictatorships all the civil powers of the State 
had been entrusted to one man, in the hope of securing order and 
tranquility; in both cases the trust had failed to secure its object. 
To keep together so vast an empire, to assimilate under one govern- 
ment such heterogeneous populations as had recently been brought 
under its sway ; to command the respect of distant kings; to curb 
the ambition and repress the avarice of proconsuls who had become 
mightier than kings; and to conserve the private fortunes that had 
been carved out of the dying republic; some greater elements of 
power and authority and some more efficacious means of subordina- 
tion were required to be wielded at Rome than those which had failed 
in the hands of Sylla and Pompey. Take, for example, the case of 
Parthia. This state had formerly been subject successively to the 
divine monarchs of Media, Persia and Syro-Macedonia: it had eman- 
cipated itself from their controiif; it had deified its own sovereigns and 
these had become subject to a;' Roman proconsul. The involution of 
heavenly rank therefore stood as follows: the sovereign of Media was 
a god; the sovereign of Persia was a higher god, because he had over- 
thrown the former one and substituted himself in his place as an ob- 
ject of worship. For a similar reason the Seleucidse and Arsacidse 
were gods, of still higher rank, until we come to Pompey, who was 
by parity of reasoning the highest of gods, that is to say, the god of 
gods, because he overthrew the entire succession of these divinities; 
he was mightier than them all. 

The additional powers and discipline which for these reasons were 
needed to maintain the ascendancy of Rome were found in the pecu- 

^Dio., xxxvi, 25; Juv., in, 159; xiv, 324; Adams, 21. 

■^ So far was Cicero from sharing this opinion that he actually regarded the new or- 
der of nobles, when they should unite with the ancient noblesse of the Senate, as an 
additional guarantee for the permanency and security of the Republic. Cicero, how- 
ever, as his letters abundantly prove, was a poor politician. Indeed this Upas tree 
of caste grew so rapidly that, in his second philipic, he was obliged to confess that 
during his own lifetime he had witnessed the Dictatorship of Sylla, the Lordship of 
Cinna, and the Monarchy of Csesar. But even here his vision was very iimited; it was 
not a Monarchy, but an Hierarchy, that had grown up under his eyes. Orat., 11. 105. 



304 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

liar organization and privileges of the Sacred college and in the mys- 
teries of religion. These the ambitious and unscrupulous Caesar has- 
tened to seize with the office of high-priest and the assumption of 
sacerdotal powers, which, in proportion as they exceeded the attrib- 
utes of earthly kings, rivalled those of gods. To this discipline and 
subordination was added that moral influence which the church alone 
could wield, the influence of blind faith, of religious myths and super- 
stition, the respect for ecclesiastical displeasure, the fear of commit- 
ting sacrilege, and the dread of excommunication and anathema. * 
These are elements of power and government which no statesman, 
in any age, can afford to despise, and which we may feel assured were 
not permitted to lie unused by so profound a politician as Julius 
Cffisar. The example of other states may also have contributed to 
bring about the Roman hierarchy. Hindostan, China, Japan, Persia, 
Chaldea, Egypt, Greece, Etruria and numerous other states of an- 
tiquity had been hierarchies. Archaic Rome itself had been an hier- 
archy. Gaul was an hierarchy. Many of these hierarchies survived 
to Caesar's time, and some of them, although all were decaying, were 
among the richest and most populous states then in existence. 

Csesar has left us in no doubt with regard to his design. The con- 
quest of India by Alexander had brought anew to the western world 
the entire flood of Brahminical myths. * The eleventh, a supplement- 
ary incarnation of Vishnu (zodion of Pisces) was at hand, and Csesar, 
(who, among his many gifts, was an accomplished master of astrol- 
ogy,) had evidently determined to become its hero, for he publicly 
and ostentatiously proclaimed his descent from the goddess Maria or 
Venus, and attested his official acts with a seal which bore her effigy. 
Marcus Coelius, writing to Cicero in A. U. 704, alluded to Csesar as 
" our heavenly-descended chief," a proof that such was the character 
of his pretensions. ^ But there are many more proofs to come. Caes- 
ar's further plans were cut short by the dagger of his friend Brutus, 
but they are clearly discernible in the constitution which was devel- 
oped by his adopted son, Augustus, and which, beyond some impair- 
ment of the first article, continued to remain essentially the funda- 
mental law of the whole empire, until the Moslem revolt in the sev- 
enth century withdrew the eastern provinces from Rome, the revolt 
of the bishops of Rome in the eighth century withdrew the western 

* Cicero, de Legibus, 11, 7. 

^ It is to these myths, many of which reached the Romans through Assyria, that 
Tacitus seems to allude by the term "judicial astrology." Annals, 11, 27, passim. 
*Suet, Jul., vi; Dio., xliv; Melmoth's Letters of Cicero, vii, 7. 



THE MESSIAH. 305 

provinces, and the Latin conquest of Constantinople in the 13th cen- 
tury destroyed all that was left of the ancient imperial authority. 

The first and most important article in the constitution of this 
empire was the extraordinary one of the Emperor's deification. Both 
in Spain and Gaul Caesar must have heard of Hesus, the Messiah, 
whose effigy stood at every cross-road, whose crosses were worn upon 
the breast of every warrior, and whose second coming, which had 
been long predicted by the Druid astrologers, coincided very closely 
with the period of his own invasion of those countries. Indeed, it is 
not at all improbable that, like Musa, Pizarro and Cortes, of later 
ages, he made use of this superstition to represent himself or permit 
himself to be regarded as the Expected One, in order to render his 
march of conquest the more easy and rapid. However this may be, it 
was probably less the imaginary incarnation of Hesus than the actual 
example of Alexander which afforded to Julius Caesar the precedent 
which he followed in his own deification. " When he was in Spain he 
bestowed his leisure hours in reading the history of Alexander, and 
was so much affected by it that he sat pensive a long time, and being 
asked the reason, he said, ' Is it not sulficient cause for concern to re- 
flect that Alexander at my age reigned over numerous conquered 
countries, whilst I, as yet, have not one glorious achievement to 
boast?' " ^ Not only the example of Alexander, but the similarity of 
circumstances, helped to make a divinity of Caesar. After the battle 
of Pharsalia the world was at his feet; and among the numerous po- 
tentates who were swayed by his nod were many who were themselves 
gods, and, as such, were worshipped by their degraded subjects. * 

From Pharsalia Caesar went to Egypt. He arrived in Alexandria 
October 6th, B. C. 48, and remained there until the month of March.® 
It was during this interval that, following in the footsteps of the 
Macedonian conqueror, he permitted himself, on Brumalia, or the 
winter solstice, A. U. 706, to be deified in the temple of Jupiter Am- 
mon and hailed by its subservient priests as the Son of God, " and it 

' Plutarch, in Julius Casasar. The official seal of Augustus was an effigy of Alex- 
ander the Great. Suetonius, in Aug., 49. 

* In after times similar empires, whose Asiatic origin is plainly stamped upon their 
religious remains, were discovered and destroyed by the astonished Spaniards in dis- 
tant Mexico and Peru. Mr. Bryce (Holy Roman Empire, 251,) notices the resemblance 
between the sacred empires of the Cssars and the Caliphs, but omits to mention the 
most important respect in which they differed, namely, in the deification and adora- 
tion of the sovereign. ^ Simcox. 

'" It was customary with the pagan Romans to bestow a new name upon those who 
were honoured with the rites of deification, as afterwards it was with the Christians to 



306 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

was in this same temple, after his death and pretended ascension to 
heaven, (of which more anon,) that Octavius, the Augustus, his 
adopted son and successor, paid him the reverence due to God the 
Father. Caesar returned to Rome through Syria, and on the way he 
stopped at Piscenus, or Pesinus, in Galatia, the seat of the religion 
of Maia, Mother of the Gods, Here, if we can place any faith in the 
accusation which both Cicero aad Brutus assisted to repel, his assas- 
sination was planned (though the plan miscarried) by Deiotaurus, the 
sacred king of the Galatians. " However, it was not in Galatia that 
a tragic and untimely death was destined to overtake him, but in 
Rome. 

The assumption of an heavenly origin entirely changed the char- 
acter and demeanour of Julius. Upon his return to the capitol he 
became difficult of access and was rarely seen in public, except when 
affairs of state rendered it necessary for him to consult with the pat- 
ricians of the Senate. He placed his own statue on a sculptured 
horse which had once supported the figure of Alexander the Great. 
This was in front of the temple of Venus Genetrix. " Other statues 
of himself were placed among those of the gods in the various tem- 
ples and carried in the processions of the circus. Even these tokens 
scarced sufficed to absorb that religious fervour and popular reverence 
for his person and name, which was st)on to become the scandal of 
the provinces and the watchword for assassination in the capital. He 
was presented with sacred vestments, with a sacred image of himself 
to be borne in his chariot, with a sacred throne and a sacred bed.'' 
To mark the sacred character of his residence it was surmounted by 
a steeple. This architectural device was an Egyptian symbol of eccle- 
siastical and sacerdotal authority, the Roman name for which was 
fastigium. " Divus Julius habuit pulvinar, simulacrum, fastigium, 

those who were canonized as saints. On this occasion Caius received the sacerdotal 
name of Julus, or Julius, really copied from the Indian Houli, but feigned to be taken 
from Julius, the son of ^neas, from whom his family subsequently affected to trace 
their descent. In all the earlier works referring to him he is called Caius C?esar, and 
sometimes simply Caius. Mr. Higgins has collected many curious observations re- 
lating to the name of Julius, which he connects with the festival of Yule and the cus- 
tom of the Yule-log. Brumalia is from Brouma, or Brumess, one of the names or 
titles of Bacchus. This deity, whom the medieval monks consigned to revelry and in- 
toxication, was anciently worshipped as the pure, the chaste, the joyous Messiah. He 
was the Son of God, immaculately conceived by the virgin Maia, or Ceres, sometimes 
called Semele. " Cicero, Letters, iii, 25; Orat. pro Deiotaurus. 

''■^ Lanciani, " Pagan and Christian Rome," p. 54. 

" Suet., in Jul., 76: App., Bell. Civ., iii, p. 494. 



THE MESSIAH. 307 

flaminem, etc." The god Julius had shrines, an image, a steeple, 
priests, and so on. '* The steeple of the Regia probably also con- 
tained a chime of bells like the temple of Jupiter. " Speaking of the 
omens that, it was believed, preceded the assassination of Julius, 
Plutarch, in his life of that divinity, says, " Calphurnia dreamed that 
the steeple fell down, which, according to Livy, the Senate ordered 
to be erected upon Caesar's residence, by way of distinction."*® The 
temples of Julius Csesar bore the appellation of Heroum Juleum, or 
Julian chapels, and contained his effigy and that of Venus, Mother of 
God. " "On certain occasions, in the exercise of his high pontifical 
office, he appeared in all the pomp of the Babylonian costume, in 
robes of scarlet, with the Crosier in his hand, wearing the Mitre and 
bearing the Keys." '* 

Of the numerous statues made of him at, or shortly after, this pe- 
riod, but few have survived the devastation of the iconoclasts, or the 
corroding hand of time. Among them is the magnificent bust, which 
still adorns the Pontifical palace at Rome. Upon the head of the 
deity is seen the sacred mantle, or peplum, which marks his heav- 
enly character. 

When the tremendous commotion caused by the death of Julius 
Caesar had spent itself in civil wars, and in the firm establishment of 
the Messianic religion and ritual, Augustus ascended the sacred 
throne of his martyred sire and was in turn addressed as the Son of 
God, whilst Julius was worshipped as the Father. ** The flamens of 
the Sacred college erected and consecrated to the worship of Julius 
Caesar a magnificent temple in Rome, and for its services, as well as 
for those of the provincial temples which might be consecrated to 
the same god, they organized a body of priests called the Julii, or 
Juliani. ^^ These priests were selected from the most ancient order, 
the Luperci, of whom Ovid says that they were instituted by Evan- 
der, " and to which order none could belong but the members of 
noble families. This priesthood was not abolished until the time of 
Anastasius Silentiarius in the sixth century ; " so that as Juliani they 

"Cic, II Philipic, (Orat., 11,106.) '^ Suet., Aug., 91. 

'® Plut., in vita; Pliny, xxxv, 12, s. 45; xxxvi, 5; Paus., 54; and Cic. Flor., iv, 2. 
" Rev. A. Herbert, " Nimrod," i, 455. ^* Rev. A. Hislop, " Two Babylons," p. 241. 
'' Manilius, " Astronomica," quoted farther on; Ovid, Fasti, iii, 155-9. 
^"Dio., XLVii, 18; Dio. Cas., 45; Plut., in Rom.; Virgil, Aen., viii, 663. 
^' Fasti, II, 279; see also Livy, i, 5. 

^^ So says Onuphrius Panvinius, a learned Augustine monk of Verona, 1529-68, the 
author of the " Lives of the Popes" and other works. 



308 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

held together from first to last for nearly six hundred years. The 
first bishop or chief priest of the Julian cult was Marc Antony. " No 
person who fled to a temple of Julius for sanctuary could be taken 
from it for punishment, a privilege which had never been granted 
before, not even to the temples and sanctuaries of Jupiter. Except 
when Augustus caused the son of Marc Antony to be dragged from 
one and slain, ^* the shrines of Julius were always regarded as invio- 
lable. ''^ Under the Triumvirate and during the early portion of the 
reign of Augustus, the worship of Julius Caesar and the erection of 
temples, sanctuaries, shrines and altars consecrated to this worship 
was carried to all parts of the empire and enforced by precept, ex- 
ample and military power. Upon these altars costly offerings and 
bloody sacrifices were made. One of the latter consisted of 300 
senators and equites, who were coldly slaughtered by order of Au- 
gustus upon the ides of March, A. U. 713, on a Julian altar at Peru- 
gia, to propitiate the god Divus Julius. ^° Official oaths were formu- 
lated in the name of Julius Caesar, and to violate them was deemed 
a more heinous crime and punished with greater severity than any 
other perjury. " 

The naming of one of the months of the year after the god Julius, 
which was done during the consulship of Marc Antony, is, by itself, 
no evidence of his deification; but the practice of other nations, the 
precedent afforded by the Athenian god Demetrius, the subsequent 
naming of a month after the deified Augustus, and the fact that the 
Romans never adopted any names in place of the ancient numerical 
names of the months, except the names of gods, lends it great sig- 
nificance. Many, attempts were made to name the months after 
various emperors who followed Augustus, but they all failed. April 
was for a brief time called Neronius; May, Claudius; and June, Ger- 
manicus. "* Tiberius, who refused to be deified, or worshipped as a 

*^ "As Jove, as Mars, as Quirinus have their priests, so is Marc Antony priest of 
the god Julius." "Est ergo flamen, ut Jovi, ut Marti, ut Quirino, sic Divo Julio, 
Marcus Antonius." Cicero, II Philipic. 

'"Suet., Aug., 17. '^^ Adams, 264. 

-^ Suet., Aug., i5;Dio., xlviii, 14; Seneca de Clem., i, 11; App. de Bell. Civ., lib.. 
V. This horrible rite celebrated the conclusion of the Civil War, the Ascension of Julius 
to Heaven and the Advent of Augustus as the Prince of Peace. In the time of Julius 
Cresar human sacrifices were only made to Mars; in that of Augustus they were made 
to Julius the Father. 

2' Dio., XIV, 6 and 50; Tac, Ann., i, 73; Codex, iv, i, 2; Codex, 11, 4, 41; Digest, 
XII, 2, 13; Tertull. Apol., 18; Cicero de Legibus, 11, 7. 

*8 Tacitus, Ann., xv, 12 and 74. 



THE MESSIAH. S^Q 

god, also refused to permit his name to be substituted for Novem- 
ber. " 

In remote times the Roman year was divided into ten months, 
named Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintilis, Sextilis, Sep- 
tembris, Octobris, Novembris and Decembris, the year beginning with 
the vernal equinox, which was made to fall on the first day of March 
and the months containing 36 days each. After the adoption of the 
gods Mars, Aphrodite, Maia and Juno into the Roman pantheon 
their names were conferred upon the first four months of the year, 
instead of Primus, Secundus, Tertius and Quartus. This calendar 
was reformed by the Decemvirs, in the sacred name of "Numa." 
They divided the year into 12 months with intercalary days and con- 
ferred upon the supplementary months the names of the gods Janus 
and Februus. '" When Julius Caesar was deified his name was given to 
what was originally the fifth month of the year, or Quintilis. When 
Octavius Augustus Ceesar was deified his sacerdotal name was given 
to the original sixth month, or Sextilis. " The remaining months 
still bear their ancient ordinal names. 

If all other evidences had perished, the names of the months alone 
would have been sufficient to afford a clue to the worship of Julius 
Caesar. The inveteracy of custom., the respect for tradition, the prac- 
tical inconvenience that arises from changes of any kind, all combine 
to resist innovation, so that when innovation does occur, as in the case 
of changed names of the months, it may be tolerably certain that pow- 
erful motives or irresistible influences lurk beneath. If such be the 
case, even at the present time, when intelligence is universally dif- 
fused and public opinion is guided by an unfettered press, it may be 
imagined how much more emphatically it was the case when mankind 
was steeped in superstition, when every life was in danger, and when 
innovation had to resist not only the inveteracy of custom, but the 
mandates of revengeful and absolute power. ^^ 

2' In 796, after Pope Leo III. had sent the keys and standard of Rome and other 
tokens of his submission to Charlemagne, the latter gave twelve German names to the 
months of the year, but they all fell flat; the people would not accept them. 

3° Brumalia, or the winter solstice, was anciently the first day of the year. Begin- 
ning the year a week after the winter solstice was an innovation. 

^' Macrobius, Sat., I, 12, says the change was made in the Senate on motion of the 
tribune Pacuvius and leaves us the inference that it was done during the lifetime of 
Augustus. The inference is corroborated by John of Nikios. 

^'■^ Other attempts have been made both in ancient and modern times to change the 
Roman names of the months, but they all proved abortive. 



3IO A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

If the reader is surprised and shocked at the impiety of a religion 
such as we have described, let it be remembered that the minds of 
the Romans were prepared for it by the familiar worship of the Lares 
or the manes of their ancestors; ^^ by the depravity which they them- 
selves had ascribed to many of their Homeric gods; by the Messianic 
incarnations which had gone before, among them that of their own 
Janus Quirinus; '* and especially by the nearer incarnations and wor- 
ship of Alexander the Great, Demetrius Poliorcetes and Titus Flam- 
ininus ; by the anarchy, bloodshed and brutalizing triumphs ^^ and 
spectacles which civil wars and foreign conquests had recently brought 
beneath their eyes;'* by the transcendent services, both military and 
civil, which Julius had rendered to the State; and by his illustrious 
descent, his alleged miraculous birth," his brilliant and varied attain- 
ments, '* his extraordinary courage and sagacity, his personal mag- 
netism, his profuse liberality, the magnificence and glamour of his 
surroundings and the legitimate authority he wielded both as sover- 
eign and high-priest. '^ Even Pompey's triumph had helped to pave 
the way for the deification of his rival and successor. Among the 
kings who had paid homage to Pompey was that scion of the Arsa- 

^^ Virgil, Aeneid, ix, 255; Tooke's Pantheon, 279. 

^* Julius Proculus swore that Romulus appeared to him and ordered him to inform 
the Senate that he had been called to the assembly of the gods, and that sacrifices 
should be made to him under the name of Quirinus. Plutarch, in Rom.; Livy, i, 16. 
and Dio. Halicar. The figures of Romulus appear clad in the trabea, a robe of state, 
which implies an ecclesiastical as well as secular dignity. The lituus, or staff of augury, 
in his hand, survives in the crosier. Bell's Pantheon. 

^* The elation produced by a military triumph was such as to render it necessary to 
place behind the victor's back, a slave, whose ofHce it was to remind him that he was 
but a mortal! Pliny, xxill, i, p. 4. Was it the victor's elation, or a popular dread 
of the example set by Scipio, Sylla, and Pompey ? 

^^ The people of Paris, scarcely over a century ago, worshipped a Goddess of Rea- 
son, personified by a beautiful young woman. 

^'' Julius Csesar was born exactly 658 years, less ten years, after the incarnation of 
Nabon-Issus. This interval was the celebrated astrological cycle or one-tenth of the 
annualized cycle of the moon's node, which was the proper time for the recurrence of 
an incarnation. The sera of Mahomet is exactly 658 years, plus ten years after the 
deification of Cassar. These differences of ten years may be due to the subsequent 
alteration of the Alexandrian sera, alluded to elsewhere in this work. The accepted 
year of Caesar's birth and that of Mahomet's Flight, were probably both " adjusted " 
by the astrologers. 

^* "Caesar had capacity, sense, memory, learning, foresight, reflection and spirit." 
Cic, II Phil., 45. 

^' "The deified Julius, a most perfect specimen, as well of the divinity of heaven, 
as of the human intellect." Valerius Maximus, viii, 2. 



THE MESSIAH. 31! 

cides, whose arrogant line had exacted a worship due alone to the 
Creator, Pompey, as though persuaded that no one less than a god 
could receive homage from a god, caused an image of himself, in gold 
and pearls, to be carried in the most brilliant procession that the 
world ever saw; leaving his son Sextus to complete the impious pre- 
tension which the father had perhaps merely suggested. " 

The Roman dominion was no longer Italy, no longer Europe, but 
the earth. At the feet of Pompey 12 tributary kings had laid their 
crowns; at the tread of the Julian legions the earth seemed to trem- 
ble and empires fell to pieces. Love, admiration, respect, venera- 
tion, are feelings which failed to express the idolatry of a sensuous 
and embruted population, toward a being so exalted, so gifted, so 
brilliant, so god-like, above all, so powerful, as Julius Caesar, whose 
slightest word sufficed to condemn a kingdom to destruction, whose 
merest glance of favour meant fortune, preferment, power, opportu- 
nity, livings, endov/ments, license, satiety, all that men, that hiero- 
phants, that nations, coveted. Adoration was alone sufficient to ex- 
express the feelings of the Roman populace toward him who reigned 
over the vast empire which they had acquired and the innumerable 
kingdoms they had enslaved. But a few years later Tiberius was 
actually upbraided because he refused to be deified and because he 
persisted in reminding the Romans that he was but a mortal. " We 
may be certain that Julius had little need to command deification; 
his crime was that he permitted and accepted it. 

If, after all these evidences and considerations, the prevalence of 
this form of anthropomorphism should still excite his incredulity, let 
the reader turn to a passage in Ezekiel, and read of that prince of 
Tyre who was rebuked and devoted to destruction, because in his 
pride he claimed to be a god. Next let him open the Antiquities of 
Josephus, XIX, viii, 2, and he will learn that Agrippa, the tributary 
king of Judea, etc., under Claudius Caesar, appeared at a public fes- 
tival in Caesarea in a " garment made wholly of silver and of a text- 
ure truly wonderful, and coming into the theatre early in the day, 
when the silver of his garment, illuminated by the sun's rays, was so 
resplendent as to send a horror over those who looked intently upon 
him, his sycophants cried out, some from one place and some from 

*" Among the kings devoted to Pompey, but who survived him, was Deiotaurus of 
Galatia, whose name also implies the assumption of a divine character. The abbe 
Lenglet de Fresnoy dates the deification of Sextus Pompey as the " Son of Neptune" 
in B. C. 37. Chronol., i, 474. Neptune was the god who presided over the zodiacal 
Fishes. *^ Tac. Ann., iv, 38. 



312 



A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 



another, that he was a god, and they added, ' Be thou merciful to us, 
for though we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall 
we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.'" Unfortu- 
nately for this would-be deity, he was shortly afterwards taken with 
a colic and died in great pain, perhaps poisoned by some obscure 
Brutus of Judea. " 

It is not necessary to account for such a worship by recalling the 
depravity of the age. A country could be named where similar de- 
pravity exists to-day, yet where there is no worship of the reigning 
sovereign. It was due to faith, habit, custom, example, in short, to 
the fact that the Romans lived nearly two thousand years nearer to 
the Brahniinical myth of the Incarnation than we do. Our task is to 
relate the historical fact; we leave to others the less invidious bur- 
den of its explanation; only let them take heed, in such explanation, 
of other phases of religion; of the Hanging Fakirs, the Stylites, the 
Chainwearers and Grasseaters of the imperial sera; of the Agapemonse 
of England, the Shakers and Mormons of America, and the other 
strange rites or beliefs that mankind have practised or endured. ■*' 

*2 This story of Agrippa, or Herod, is briefly told in Acts xii, 22, where the scene, 
however, is changed to Tyre. The following example of human-worship belongs to 
the present time : 

Calcutta, June 20, 1S94.— Yesterday the Queen's statue at Madras was smeared (annointed) with 
Hindu religious marks on the forehead, neck and breast. The police inquiry has resulted in the opinion 
being expressed that it was the work of a Hindu who desired to worship the statue. This is not the 
first time that such a smearing (annointing) has taken place. Some time ago a carpenter was caught in 
the act of decorating the statue with garlands, and marks similar to those now found were detected on 
that occasion. He said that he was worshipping the Great Maharanee, who, he hoped, would protect 
him and give him plenty of work. The Inspector of Police, in whose division the statue is situated, 
says that he himself has noticed people burning incense, breaking cocoanuts, and prostrating themselves 
in worship before it. Correspondence London Times. 

*^ See my Essay on " The Druses of Galilee." Materials for a history of the Druses 
will be found in Ezekiel, Josephus, Pausanias, De Sacy, Didron, Churchill and other 
works. The Jezites, an ancient "Christian sect " in Persia, are described by Noel, ar- 
ticle " Jezd." The Stylites, Grasseaters, and other "Christian" sects of a later period 
are mentioned in most of the early ecclesiastical " histories." The Galilean Chainwearers 
are described by the Emperor Julian, in the fragment preserved by Cyril of Alexan- 
dria. A modern incarnation of the deity in the kingdom of Ava is mentioned by 
Upham. A re-incarnation of Salivahana was to "come off" in 1895. So late asi78i, 
Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador to the Court of Naples, found that 
phallic symbols were publicly worshipped in the Christian churches of Isneria and 
Daniano. Meredith's pages are crowded with evidences on this subject. The images 
of the Sibyls were retained in the Christian church of Sienna. Bell's Pantheon, 11, 237. 
The Agapemonse was an English Christian sect of the present century, whose abom- 
inable rites are alluded to by the Rev. Mr. Baring-Gould, For the blasphemous 
monkish tale of the marriage of St. Dunstan's mother to the Almighty, see Brady's 
Clavis Calendaria, i, 388. 



THE :.IESS1AH. 3IJ. 

As in the case of other successful deifications or apotheoses, that 
of Julius Caesar was made the beginning of a new sera. This one be- 
gan with the date of his deification in the temple of Jupiter Ammon, 
on the winter solstice of the year B. C. 48. As it coincided closely 
with the date of the battle of Pharsalia, Tacitus and other pagan dis- 
senters from Julianism, who could not change the sera, called it, or 
have been made by their redactors to call it, the sera of that battle; 
and as it also coincided within a year or two of the alleged freedom 
of Antioch, the Christian monks, who could not change it, called it 
by the name of that event. As such it was employed by the putative 
Evagrius, in the sixth century, and explained away by Pope Gregory 
XIII. in the i6th century. " 

Even after the deification of Julius was ratified by the senate of 
Rome, two years later, the Julian sera was reckoned from the original 
deification, and, as such, it was introduced into all parts of the em- 
pire, with, possibly, the exception of Antioch, for this exception is 
by no means certain. This subject, as well as the absence of all men- 
tion of the Christian sera by the Christian writers down to the pontifi- 
cate of Gregory II., has received attention in another place. 

The worship of Divus Julius was encouraged and supported both 
by the Triumvirate, who assumed the government of the Roman world 
after his death, and by Octavius, the Augustus, who succeeded the 
Triumvirate. Nay more, Augustus had the address to cause his own 
worship to be added to that of Julius. The latter was now impiously 
addressed as the Supreme Being, the former became the Son of God, 
and as such he is announced upon his coins and other monuments. 
But this did not last long. Even the Son of God did not appear to 
be a title sufficiently exalted-<o suit the devotees of the Augustus; 
and in numerous contemporary inscriptions, both in Rome, Greece 
and Asia, he is termed Deos, or Theos, which means not the Son of 
God, nor one of the gods, but the living god, the Creator, Optimo 
Maximo. However, Divus Filius, .<:Esar and Quirinus seem to have 
been the titles by which Octavius himself preferred to be called. 

** Says Gregory: "Antioch, in honour of the emperor, fixed its sra in Caius Julius 
Caesar and made this year of grace, the first." "Works," London, ed. i66s, p. 156, 
cited in Evagrius, note to 11, 12. The Holy father then admits some instances of its 
use (as though such instances were rare) and ascribes its adoption to the free preroga- 
tives of the city, secured to it by Julius Csesar. If the granting of such freedom to 
cities was sufficient to cause a change of the sera it may be asked why is it that Antioch 
stands almost alone in this respect, and why is it that nearly all other aeras are those 
of pretended incarnations or deifications, and not of freedom conferred upon cities ? 



r 



314 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

The worship of Augustus was not, as the ecclesiastical schools have 
insinuated, a mere lip-service, a meaningless mode of saluting the 
sovereign-pontiff, an effusive form of adulation or flattery to the 
emperor of Rome; it was the worship of a personage who was believed 
to be supernatural, omniscient, all-powerful and beneficent, the re- 
incarnation of Quirinus, the Son of the god Apollo and of the wife- 
virgin Maia; *^ the god whose coming was foretold by the Cumgean 
Sibyl; whose sway was to extend over the whole earth; whose Con- 
ception and Birth were both miraculous ; and whose Advent was to 
usher in the Golden Age of Peace and Plenty and to banish Sin for- 
ever. Such was his character in Rome. In Greece he was worshipped 
as Dionysos; in Egypt as Thurinus; in Iberia and Gaul as ^sar, or 
Hesus; and in Germany as Baldir; for all of these titles and many 
others will be found on his monuments, or have been preserved by 
his biographers. 

The most effective reply that can be made to those historians who 
have ignored the worship of Augustus — and who, when they have not 
concealed its evidences, have passed them over, or sought to belittle 
them — is to read a letter from one of the worshippers of this god, 
written from Tomis, a Roman outpost, near the mouths of the Dan- 
ube " addressed to Grsecinus, in Rome, and dated, according to our 
chronology, A. D. 15, or shortly after the death and Ascension of 
Augustus. The writer of this letter was no less a person than the 
poet Ovid, or Publius Ovidius Naso, a nobleman of the equestrian 
order, then 58 years of age and, as his other writings testify, in the 
full possession of his faculties. 

"Nor is my piety unknown: this distant land sees a shrine of our 
Lord Augustus erected in my house. Together with him stand his 
son and wife (his priestess), deities scarcely less than our Lord him- 
self ... As oft as the day arises, so often do I address my 
prayers to them, together with offerings of frankincense. Shouldst 
thou enquire, the whole of Pontus will confirm my words, and attest 
ray sincerity ; nor is my religion less known to strangers . 
Though fortune is not equal to my inclination in such duties, I will- 
ingly devote to this worship such means as I command . . . 
Caesar! Thou, who art summoned to the gods above, thou too, 
from whom nothing can be concealed, thou knowest this to be true! 

■*' For Maia, Atia, etc., see the author's monograph on " The Mother of the Gods." 
** The Danube was originally called the Issus; afterward, the Matous. Malte- 
Brun's Geog. 



THE MESSIAH. 3tlJ 

In thy place among the stars, fixed in the arch of the skies, thou 
hearest my prayers, which I utter with anxious lips! " 

This evidence does not stand alone. Throughout all of Ovid's 
Letters, of which ^6 remain to us, throughout all of his Elegies, of 
which JO remain, throughout all his Fasti, of which six entire books 
remain, he repeatedly addresses the then living Augustus as God, or 
the Son of God, the Great Deity, the Heaven-born, the Divine, the 
Omniscient, the Beneficent, the Just, the Long-suffering, the Merciful 
God. It may serve the purposes of perversion to explain this away, 
it may afford a refuge for obstinacy or delusion to dismiss it with 
affectations of incredulity or contempt; but this is no answer to the 
fact; for fact it unquestionably is, not alone upon the testimony of 
Ovid, but upon that also of numerous other intelligent, respectable 
and even illustrious witnesses, that is to say, the testimony of Virgil, 
Horace, Manilius, Pliny, Suetonius and others. What is insisted upon 
is that, Augustus Caesar, by his contemporaries, was believed to be, 
and was actually worshipped as a god; with bell, book, candle, 
steeple, frankincense, rosary, cross, mitre, temples, priesthood, ben- 
efices and ritual; in short, with all the outward marks of superstition, 
credulity, piety and devotion. There is nothing impossible about 
this; and the evidence of this worship is so valid, circumstantial and 
overwhelming, that to refuse assent to it, is to put reason out of 
court altogether. The witnesses are not phantoms, the wild cre- 
ations of credulous minds; their writings are not anonymous patch- 
works, undated, unlocated and unsigned; they do not stand unsup- 
ported by archaeology, inscriptions, coins, calendars, or popular 
customs; on the contrary, they are corroborated and buttressed by 
all these classes of evidence. The witnesses are men of reputation, 
their writings are among the masterpieces of the world, which it 
would be impossible to imitate and difficult to alter without detection, 
whilst the monuments which support them are numbered by myriads 
and found in every conceivable locality, from the Roman slabs in 
the mosque of Ancyra, to the coins rescued from buried Pompeii ; 
both of which, as well as a vast number of other inscriptions and 
coins, proclaim the divinity and universal worship of Augustus 
throughout the Roman world. _y 

And mark this: that in actual history great events do not occur 
alone. They appear neither unheralded nor unsung. Minor events 
start forth to presage them; others proclaim their occurrence; still 
others attest and exalt their significance; whilst a numerous progeny 
of facts remain behind to corroborate their appearance upon the 



3X6 A NEW CHRONOLOGY 

world's stage and to definitely mark their sera. The presages of the 
Augustan incarnation were the previous assumptions of divinity by 
Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, the SelucidK, Demetrius Pol- 
iorcetes, the Arsacidse, Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the abortive at- 
tempts of Scipio, Sylla, Sertorius and Pompey, and the successful 
one of Julius Cresar. It was the bestowal of Cesar's empire. Spiritual 
and Temporal, upon his adopted son Augustus, that directly led to 
the worship of the latter. The assumption of divinity by the various 
sovereigns and heroes mentioned, are historical facts which no amount 
of sophistry can belittle or set aside; they are the historical circum- 
stances that presaged and led up the worship of Augustus. In false 
history and false philosophy there is no such evolution. Take for 
example the incarnations of Nebo-Nazaru, Hesus and Salivahana. 
What preceded these fictions? Nothing. What accompanied them? 
Nothing. What followed them? Nothing, but other fictions. What 
evidences of their occurrence exists within two hundred years of the 
time assigned to them? None whatever. What valid evidence, at 
any ime? None at all. They were myths of the cloisters, uncon- 
nected with any real event, fabricated centuries after the date as- 
signed to them; and supported only by forgery, imposture and alter- 
ations of the calendar. 

When the tremendous commotion caused by the assassination of 
Julius Cxsar had spent itself in civil wars and in the firm establish- 
ment of the Messianic religion and ritual, when Actium was won, and 
Egypt and Asia were reconquered, Augustus ascended the throne of 
his martyred Sire and was in turn annointed, addressed and worship- 
ped as the Son of God; whilst Julius was tacitly worshipped as the 
Father. Most of the ancient books were now destroyed; the writers 
of the old school were executed or banished; the republican calendar 
was altered; and a conclave of historians and mythological poets was 
encouraged and rewarded, who re-wrote the history of Rome and 
erected for posterity a body of elegant fiction and imposture, which 
nineteen centuries of time have not yet sufficed to wholly overthrow 
or eradicate. 

These statements are not mere opinions; they are based upon evi- 
dences so valid, so numerous and so convincing that they would tri- 
umphantly withstand the severest scrutiny of a court of law. 

According to the received chronology, Csepius, or, he who was af- 
terwards called Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, and still later the 
Augustus, was born September 23, A. U. 692, began to reign Feb- 
ruary 26, A. U. 711 and died August 29, A. U. 76S, aged 76 years 



THE MESSIAH. 317 

lacking one month. "' He was the son of Maia, as she was called by 
Horace and the inscription at Lyons, while Suetonius says her name 
was Atia, a niece of Julius Caesar. His putative father was Caius 
Octavianus; a citizen of Rome and the son of a baker. At the age 
of four years Augustus lost his father. He was then adopted by 
Phillipusand afterwards at the age of puberty by Julius Cffisar, as his 

*'' The chronology is based on the dates which appear in the Testament of Augustus, 
engraved on the walls of his temple at Ancyra. According to Mr. John M. Kinneir's 
" Journey through Asia Minor," ed, 1818, p. 70, this monument has been tampered 
with, therefore until the dates are corroborated by some valid monument, as yet not 
exposed to the work of forgers, they must not be regarded as conclusive, especially 
as Josephus says that Augustus died at the age of seventy-six, while Eutropius, vii, 8, 
says that he died at the age of eighty-six. The monument says " I am now in my 
seventy-sixth year," which, if Josepus is right, was the year of his death. Of course 
this is possible; but in view of the testimony of Eutropius and Kinneir, it looks sus- 
picious. The Ancyran monument says that Augustus was nineteen years of age when 
Hirtius and Pansa were consuls and when — after their mysterious death during the 
same year — he got his first consulship. This was the year following the assassination 
of Julius Caesar, or (by our chronology) A. U. 711. As it is from this year that the 
reign — not the Advent, nor the Apotheosis, nor the Ascension, but the reign — of Au- 
gustus is commonly reckoned and, as according to Josephus, he died at the age of 
seventy-six years, therefore he died in 768 and was born in 6tj2. If the student will take 
the trouble to compare these dat :s with those in any modern date-book, he will observe 
several discrepancies and he will have to choose between the monument and the chro- 
nologists. Suetonius says that Augustus was born the day when the conspiracy of 
Catiline was debated in the Senate, but this does not help us, for the year of Rome 
is wanting, as indeed it is in most of the ancient works which have been submitted to 
the scrutiny of the Sacred College. Josephus evidently counts Augustus' reign from 
February 26 of the year, when, according to Tacitus, Hirtius and Pansa were con- 
suls. As it does not appear that y\ugustus succeeded Hirtius and Pansa on February 
26, Josephus probably derived this particular day from tliat of the Apotheosis of A.U. 
738. This last was the New-Year day of the Augustan Aera, which was observed 
during the lifetime of Augustus, but was afterwards superceded by an oera, the year, 
(not the day,) of which, was counted from the Ascension. It will be observed that 
Eutropius, Josephus and the Treatise on Oratory which is commonly ascribed to Taci- 
tus, all count the reign of Augustus from his first consulate, or, which is practically 
the same thing, from the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa. Although Augustus does not 
claim so much in his Testament, he begins its chronicles at the same time. Strictly 
speaking, he was at that time a consul of the republic, and that, too, with Pedius for 
his colleague. The Triumvirate had yet to be formed and dissolved; Greece, Africa 
and Asia had to be conquered; and the empire organised. Until these oI;jccts were 
achieved Augustus did not reign; and when he did reign he was careful rather to claim 
less than more authority than he had really acquired. With regard to his Aera, there 
is no evidence that it was employed earlier than his return from Syria and the celebra- 
tion of the Ludi Sseculares and Ludi Augustales. The date, February 26, is from the 
" six months and two days " of Josephus, reckoned backward from the day of Augus- 
tus' death. 



3l8 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

-own son. When Caesar was assasinated, Augustus was still in his 
teens. When, in accordance with the Treaty of Brundusium, Au- 
gustus divided the world with Marc Antony, giving to the latter the 
Eastern, and retaining for himself Rome and the Western Empire, 
he had but barely attained the age of manhood. After the departure 
of Marc Antony, one of the first acts of Augustus was the destruction 
of Perugia, a city which refused to acknowledge his authority. The 
fall of this place was followed by the sacrificial Placation of Julius 
the Father. In this atrocious rite, some authors allege that the con- 
sul, Lucius Antony, (brother of Marc) besides Cannutius C. Flavius, 
Clodius Bithynicus, and the principal magistrates and council of 
Perugia, together with 300 senators and knights, were immolated as 
human sacrifices, upon an altar of Julius, erected for the occasion. *® 
The greater part of the abominable auto da fe was executed in the 
presence of Augustus himself, whose only reply to those who im- 
plored and shrieked for mercy, was: " You must die." 

Let those who contend that the worship of Julius and Augustus 
was merely a form, ponder over this horrible event. So soon as the 
gruesome business was over, Augustus prepared for his own elevation 
to the godship. Such of the ancient literature as was not destroyed, 
was perverted, the Sibylline books *^ being among those preserved, 
because they were found to contain the prophecy of his Advent, which, 
according to the subservient interpretation of Virgil, was to occur 
this same year, that is to say, in the consulate of Pollio, A. U. 713, 
when the world would be at peace, the temple of Janus closed, and 
the Golden Age would begin. Unfortunately for this pretty scheme, 
Marc Antony, grown jealous of Augustus, made war upon him; and 
the temple of Janus had to be re-opened; so that the god of the 
Western world was fain to postpone his intended elevation until the 
god of the East was subdued. The memorable victory of Actium 
was won in A. U. 723. It was in this year that Herod is said to have 
paid a relief of 800 talents to Augustus, who confirmed him, for the 
second time, in his vassal kingdom of Judea; an act, which the Ro- 

^^ Suet., in Aug, 

*^ There were ten Sibyls and ten books and ten decemviri to take charge of them. 
In Roman legend the books are mentioned in connection with Tarquin the Proud; in 
Roman history they first explicitly appear in the consulate of Lucretius, A. U. 292, 
although they are alluded to as nothing new. Livy, I, 7; III, 10; V, 13, etc. In the 
Augustan age it was pretended that they had been destroyed during the Marsic war 
A.U. 670, whereupon new copies were collected from the Sibylline oracles throughout 
the empire and deposited by Augustus under the statue of Apollo on the Palatine 
Hill. Suet., Aug., 31; Dio., 17. 



THE MESSIAH. 319 

mans called "the Grace of God," but which the Jews attributed to 
bribery at court. In the following year Augustus entered Asia and 
Egypt at the head of an immense army ; when Antony and Cleopatra, 
in despair, committed suicide. In this year the conqueror pretended 
to have opened the Suez Canal and thus placed Rome in direct com- 
munication with India ; whereas, it was in fact done several years 
previously by Julius Caesar; although in the meanwhile the canal may 
have filled up with sand and have required dredging. The monument 
of Ancyra asserts that in his seventh consulate Octavius was recog- 
nised as the Augustus, or Holy one ; a statement that agrees with 
Censorinus, who says that he received the title of Augustus in A. U. 
726. This was probably true as to the Orient, but it does not appear 
that the title was assumed in Rome until the year known to us as 
A. U. 738. '" 

In A. U. 730 Herod is said to have rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem 
and dedicated it to Jehovah. In the upper city he erected another 
edifice of greater magnitude, which he called the Caesarium, and 
dedicated it to Augustus. He also built a temple to Augustus in 
Strato's Tower, "which," says Josephus, "was excellent, both for 
beauty and size; and therein was a colossal image of Augustus, not 
less than that of Jupiter Olympus, which it was made to resemble." 
Herod rebuilt Samaria, renamed it Sebastos, the Greek form of Au- 
gustus, and erected therein a temple to the worship of that god. In- 
deed he repaired many places and erected temples and statues of 
Augustus in them, and called them Caesarea, Augusta and the like. 
In the 192nd four-year Olympiad, answering to A. U. 745, Herod 
even went so far in his homage of Augustus, as to revive the pana- 
geia of Jasius, or the fifty-months each of ^6 days, or five-year 

^" According to the monument at Ancyra, which was erected after Octavius had 
been consul 14 times, imperator 20 times and tribune 38 times, therefore according to 
our chronology, after A. U. 762, Octavius had been named Sebastos (at least in the 
Orient) in his sixth consulate. According to the chronology which has been supplied 
to us, this was in A. U. 724; yet Eutropius, vii, 8, says that Augustus returned to 
Rome in the 12th year from his first consulate, which agrees with A. U. 723. Cen- 
sorinus says the title of *' Augustus, D. F.,"was conferred by the Senate, January 16, 
in the year of his seventh consulate, when his colleague was M. Vipsanius Agrippa, 
Cos., III. This answers to our A. U. 725, or 726; so that, like Julius Caesar, Octa- 
vius appears to have been deified in Egypt first, and in Rome two years later. Some 
authors make a difference of three years between these dates. The Roman deification 
seems to have been immediately followed by the Triumph and the Ssecular games of 
A. U. 738 (Censorinus), yet there are 14 or 15 years between the two dates, during 
which the history of Octavius is barren of events. 



320 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

Olympian games and to call them ' ' Caesar's games. " For the expen- 
ses of their observance he devoted certain revenues in perpetuity. 
(Josephus, Wars, xxi.) His coins were stamped with the Buddhic 
or Osirian sacred monogram p which was afterwards appropriated 
by the medieval historians of Christianity. 

After the subjection of Egypt, Augustus, at the head of vast forces, 
visited Tyre, Sidon, Samos, Ancyra, Cyzicus and other places in Asia; 
in all of which he received a homage due alone to gods. To crown 
these supernal triumphs, he recovered from the Parthian king, Phraa- 
tes, the Roman standards, captured years before from Crassus: and 
thus relieved the arms of Rome from the only stain that rested upon 
them. According to the Ancyran inscription, Augustus returned from 
Syria to Rome during the consulship of Q. Lucretius Vispillo. The 
day was afterwards celebrated as Augustalia, October 12. The chro- 
nologists place this consulship in A. U. 737, whereas Eutropius says 
that Augustus returned 12 years after his first consulship: a discrep- 
ancy of 14 or 15 years. The conqueror brought with him the acknowl- 
edged empire of the world. He was therefore fully prepared to as 
sume that divine elevation for which every preparation had been 
made during his absence from the capital. 

According to the chronology arranged for the occasion, it was just 
seven cycles, each of no years, from the apotheosis of Romulus, by 
whose sacred name of Janus Quirinus, Augustus desired himself to be 
called. The pretension was that Augustus was the reincarnation of 
Janus Quirinus, or Romulus; therefore, the temples erected to his 
worship in the west were commonly dedicated to Augustus and Roma; 
the images of the latter being merely those of a beautiful matron. 
With the street effigies of Augustus, of which Ovid informs us there 
were a thousand in Rome alone, the members of Augustus' family, 
the Holy Family, as Ovid calls it, namely, his wife, Livia, and one of 
his adopted sons, Drusus — both of whom were canonized — were 
sometimes associated. Many of these effigies continued in use for 
centuries, and some of them are possibly doing service yet. From 
the year of the apotheosis, that is to say, A. U. 738, began a new 
sera. It was in this year, says Lenormant, that Augustus assumed 
those rights of coinage which ever afterwards remained the preroga- 
tive of the sovereign-pontiff. " The new year day of this sera was 
originally February 26. This was eventually altered to December 25. 

^^ It was in A, U. 738 that Augustus assumed those rights of coinage which ever 
afterwards remained the prerogative of the sovereign-pontiff. Lenormant, 11, 214. 



THE MESSIAH. 321 

E'xcept in the Iberian peninsular, where the custom of employing 
the Julian sera prevailed down to a recent period, the Augustan sera, 
since masked under other names, served for the dates of the Roman 
world, until some time after the reign of Justinian II., when, without 
any unnecessary disturbance of recorded dates, the years, which were 
formerly reckoned from A. U. 738, were reckoned from A. U. 753. " 
When the chronology of the Augustan period is closely examined it 
will be found to have been altered by the Latin Sacred College to the 
extent of 15 years. Proofs of this alteration of the calendar appear 
upon examining the Timaean and Ciceronian sera of Romulus; the 
dates of the Ludi Sseculares given by Censorinus; the erroneous seras 
ascribed by modern chronologists to Augustus' principal Triumph; 
the conflicting dates ascribed to the consulates of Augustus by Sue- 
tonius and Eutropius, or inscribed on the monuments at Ancyra and 
elsewhere; the dated coins of Rome audits provinces; besides other 
circumstances, which it would be tedious to rehearse in this place. 

To prepare for the Apotheosis of A. U. 738, the Augustan histo- 
rians and poets — bearing in mind the slaughter of Perugia ; the un- 
grateful murders of Cicero and Lucius Antony; the tragic death of 
Marc Antony and Cleopatra; the mysterious banishment of Ovid; the 
condemnation of Afidius Memla, and many other similar circum- 
stances — now tuned and struck anew their mendacious lyres. Let us 
listen to some of their strains, first disposing of the too premature 
paeans of Virgil, which he sang in his Fourth Eclogue: 

"The last Great ^ra foretold by the Cumgean Sibyl is now ar- 
rived; the Cycles begin anew. Now returns the Golden Age of 
Saturn, now appears the Immaculate Virgin. (This was Maia, the 
virgin mother of Augustus). Now descends from Heaven a divine 
Nativity. O! chaste Lucina, (this was the goddess of maternity), 
speed the Mother's pains, haste the glorious Birth, and usher in the 
reign of thy Apollo. In thy consulship, O ! Pollio, shall happen this 
glorious Advent, and the great months shall then begin to roll. 
Thenceforth whatever vestige of Original Sin remains, shall be swept 
away from earth forever, and the Son of God shall be the Prince of 
Peace! " 

As before intimated, this strain was sung too prematurely, and the 
battle of Actium had yet to be fought and won before the Messianic 
and Apotheosis project could be realised. Meanwhile no glorious 
Advent is recorded, no great months began to roll, no Great ^ra 
was commenced, no Cycles were renewed, the peace was postponed, 

52 See "Middle Ages Revisited," Appendix on " Chronology of Augustus." 



322 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the temple of Janus was reopened, and Original Sin has retained its 
place in the liturgy of the Roman church to the present day. 

The Pollio alluded to in this Eclogue was Caius Asinius Pollio, 
born A. U. 678, died A. U. 757, an orator, poet, historian, politician, 
warrior, governor of Gaul, courtier and time-server. He was with 
Julius Caesar when he passed the Rubicon and again at Pharsalia. 
Pollio was named as consul with Cn. Domitius Calvinus, for the year 
713, but, although the year goes by their names, such was the con- 
fusion of the times that neither of them actually filled the consular 
chair. After the death of Caesar, Pollio took sides with Marc Antony, 
but, either from the desperate circumstances of the latter or because 
he was bribed with the consulship, Pollio, before the slaughter of 
Perugia, went over to Augustus. It was he, who, introducing Virgil 
to Maecenas, procured for the poet the restitution and enlargement 
of his landed estates and earned for himself the immortality conferred 
by the mention of his name in the Eclogues. His own works, of 
which there were several, have all disappeared. The capitulation of 
Perugia, the holocaust of human victims sacrificed upon the altar of 
Julius the Father, the Treaty of Brundusium, and the departure of 
Antony for the east, all occurred during the nominal consulship of 
Pollio, and they marked both the advent of Augustus Caesar and the 
assumed restoration of peace to the Roman world, " 

We now begin with the literature of the triumph, deification and 
Apotheosis, which followed Augustus' return from Asia. In pursu- 
ance of the astrology which Rome had gathered from Etruria, Greece, 
Pontus, Galilee, Syria, Egypt, Spain and Gaul, indeed from every 
source whence came the heterogeneous materials which now com- 
posed her military forces and her millions of slaves, it was necessary 
to show that the Incarnation was connected with previous incarna- 
tions; that it occurred at the beginning of a new divine cycle; that 
it was the issue of a divine father and mortal mother; that the mother 
was a wife- virgin ; that the birth happened at the end of ten solar 
months; that it occurred in an obscure place; that it was foretold by 
prophecy or sacred oracle; that it was presaged or accompanied by 
prodigies of Nature ; that the divinity of the child was recognized by 
sages; that the Holy One exhibited extraordinary signs of precocity 
and wisdom; that his destruction was sought by the ruling powers, 
whose precautions were of course defeated; that he worked miracles; 
that he exhibited a profound humility; that his apotheosis would 

^^ Appian, de Bell. Civ.; Dio. Cass.; Livy, Ep., 126; Suet., in Aug. 



THE MESSIAH. 323 

bring peace on earth, and that he would finally ascend to heaven, 
there to join the Father. Accordingly, the Augustan writers furnished 
all these materials. 

The first day of the Apotheosis, February 26, was that of the Nebo- 
Nazarene nativity; whilst the year was that of the Ludi Saeculares, 
dating from the Apotheosis of Romulus. Suetonius tells us concern- 
ing the Nativity that Atiaor Maia having, in the absence of her hus- 
band, gone to the temple of Apollo at midnight, there fell asleep ; 
and in that condition was approached by a serpent. Upon awaken- 
ing, she seemed, for reasons stated by the chronicler, to be aware 
of what had happened. In the tenth month she was delivered of 
Augustus, who became known as the Son of the god Apollo. The 
birth occurred in Velitre, a village some twenty miles from Rome, 
and in a small and humble cottage, which ever afterwards was held 
Sacred. Even the owner of the house, having incautiously approached 
it, was blasted by lightning from heaven. The birth of Augustus was 
foretold not only by the Cumeean Sibyl, it was predicted by a divine 
oracle delivered in Velitre and by a prodigy that had happened pub- 
licly in Rome five or six months before the Nativity and was the oc- 
casion of the intended Slaughter of Innocents presently to be men- 
tioned. Before the Nativity, Maia dreamt that her body was scattered 
to the stars and encompassed the universe. After the Nativity, Oc- 
tavianus, her earthly husband, dreamt he saw the bright beams of 
the Sun emanate from her person; and when he sacrificed, where 
Alexander the Great had formerly sacrificed and had seen a miracle, 
namely, at a temple of Dionysius or Bacchus in Thrace, Octavianus 
saw a similar miracle: a sheet of flame ascended from the altar, en- 
veloped the steeple and mounted high to heaven. On the following 
night Octavianus dreamt he saw the Infant Augustus grasping the 
Thunderbolt and wearing the Sceptre and Robe of Jupiter, his head 
surrounded by a radiance of glory, and his chariot decked wi:h laurel, 
while yoked to it were six steeds of purest white. When, before the 
Nativity, the divine oracle at Velitre predicted that "Nature was 
about to bring forth a Prince over the Roman people," the Senate 
passed an Act, A. U. 692, ordering that "No male child born that 
year should be reared or brought up." Thus, every boy born within 
the Roman pale was devoted to destruction, and a frightful Slaughter 
of Innocents would have ensued, had not those who expected chil- 
dren, removed the tablets of the law from the walls of the asrarium; 
and thus defeated the atrocious edict. When the sage and astrologer, 
P. Nigidius, learnt that Atia had been delivered of Augustus, he 



324 . A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

openly proclaimed that the Lord of the Universe was born. While 
Augustus was yet an infant, he arose from his cradle at night and 
next morning he was found upon the roof of the house, facing Apollo, 
or the rising Sun. On the city side of the house a multitude of frogs 
maintained a deafening clamour. So soon as Augustus was old 
enough to speak, he commanded these animals to keep silence, and 
from that moment they were completely hushed. 

When, at a later period, Augustus went with M. Vipsanius Agrippa 
to the study of Theogenes, the astrologer, at ApoUonia, and there 
divulged the hour of his nativity, Theogenes fell down and worship- 
ped him as God, (adoravitque eum). ^* At a later period he was 
worshipped by Lepidus, the Pontifex Maximus of Rome. ^* Among 
the miracles that Augustus wrought, his merest touch was sufficient 
to cure deformity or disease; and so universally was his divine origin 
and attributes acknowledged that many people, in dying, left their 
entire fortunes to the Sacred fisc, in gratitude, as they themselves 
expressed it, for having been permitted to live during the incarnation 
and earthly sojourn of this Son of God. Suetonius (Aug. 100) in- 
forms us that in the course of twenty years private individuals be- 
queathed to Augustus no'less than 35 million aurei, equal to about 40 
million sovereigns or half-eagles of the present weight and standard. 
In addition to these legacies, numerous vassal princes left their en- 
tire patrimonies to this Messiah. 

To evince his humility, once a year, Augustus, veiled in the sacred 
peplum, stood at the porch of the Regia and received alms from the 
pious. His Apotheosis not only brought profound peace to the Ro- 
man world, so that the temple of Janus was permanently closed, it 
marked a new ^ra. At his death, concludes Suetonius, "there was 
not wanting a person of praetorian rank who saw his spirit ascend to 
Heaven." The name of this privileged witness was the senator 
Numericus Atticus. The Ascension of Augustus is engraved upon 
the great cameo, from the spoils of Constantinople, presented by 
Baldwin II., to Louis IX., and now in the Cabinet of France. A fac- 
simile of it is published in Duruy's " History of Rome." 

Having thus briefly sketched the history of the Augustan worship, 
it is next in order to call those contemporary witnesses who attested 
this worship, or who sang its praises. We have already heard Ovid, 
Virgil and Suetonius. We will now turn to a later work of Virgil; 
and also to Horace, Manilius, Tacitus and others. 

^* Suet., in Aug. The Roman term for astrologer was " mathematician." 

*^ Manning's Xiphilinus, i, 114. 



THE MESSIAH. 32$ 

Says Virgil (^neid VI, 789-93): 

This is Csesar and the Holy Family 

Spanning the spacious axle of heaven, 

This is He, whom thou hast oft heard promised thee, 

Augustus CcEsar, Son of God, who 

Shall restore the Golden Age to Latium. 

Says Horace (Book I) : 

" Come we entreat thee, Divine Apollo, thy brilliant shoulders robed in clouds , . . 
Kind Maia's winged Child, if with change of shape thou dost take on earth the form 
of a Youth, deigning to be styled the Avenger of Caesar, late mayest thou return to 
Heaven." 

Again : 

' ' Father and Guardian of the human race, mayest thou (great Jove) reign with Au- 
gustus, thy second in power . . . Inferior only to thee. He shall rule with equity the 
wide world." 

And as if not satisfied with these expressions, Horace elsewhere 
adds that of "Prsesens divus habebitur Augustus " : We have with 
us, the living god Augustus. 

Listen to Manilius, (Astronomica, I, 7-10:) 

"It is thee, Augustus, thyself a god, and the Prince and Father of his Country, 
who by divine law reigneth over the universe, and who awaiteth his place in heaven 
with the Father, who inspires me to sing these sublime themes." 

Again, (I, 773-5 

" The Julian family sprung from Venus and descended from the skies, returns again 
to heaven, where reigns Augustus with Jupiter the Father." ^^ 

Were it necessary, these testimonies could be greatly multipled; 
but they would fatigue the reader. The temples at Ancyra and 
Ephesus, besides myriads of coins and inscriptions, still extant, hail 
Augustus as Divus Filius, or the Son of God; the medal published by 
Father Hardouin in his work on Ancient Coins, pourtrays the pontifi- 
cal hat of Augustus surmounted by a Latin cross; whilst Horace and 
some of the inscriptions allude to the god as the Son of Maia, who, 
as we know, was universally recognized as the Mother of God. " 

Coveting deification, Augustus neither commanded himself to be 
deified, nor to be worshipped ; but with the prudence and deviousness 
that characterized all his measures, he munificently rewarded those 

^^ It did not appear to present any difficulties to the Roman mind that the Augustus 
should have been successively regarded as the Son of Julius the Father, Apollo the 
Father and the coadjutor of Jupiter the Father. Historical incarnations are far more 
intractable than mythical ones, and demand a much larger degree of credulity on the 
part of the worshipper. 

*'' At Lyons a temple was erected to Mercurio Augusto et Maiae Augustse. Duruy's 
Hist. Rome. 



326 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

who set the example of addressing and worshipping him as the Su- 
preme Being; whilst he heavily and cruelly punished those who ne- 
glected this impious homage. Arminius complained to his soldiers 
that the Romans had made Augustus a god. This was not strictly cor- 
rect: Augustus had made himself a god; as Scipio and Sylla had at- 
tempted to do, and as Titus Flamininus, Sertorius and Julius Csesar 
had actually done, before him. 

By securing and uniting in his own person the tribunitian, consular, 
censorial and sacerdotal functions; by suppressing the qujestors; and 
by taking the appointment of the praetors into his own hands, Au- 
gustus stealthily and noiselessly secured all those powers of the state 
which Julius had grasped with ruder hands, but had suddenly lost at 
the foot of Pompey's statue. These usurpations having been confirmed 
by a trembling senate, Augustus was raised almost in fact, as well as 
in name, to that deified rank which Julius had established, but so 
briefly enjoyed. 

With the consular power Augustus acquired lawful command over 
the army, navy and militia, lawful control over the provinces and the 
right to deal with tributary or vassal kingdoms; with the censor- 
ial power and the suppression of the quasstors he obtained control 
of the tithes and other revenues, the administration of the treasury, 
the construction and repair of public works and the right to enquire 
into the private affairs of citizens, both by confession and otherwise; 
the last a most potent instrument of tyranny. With the acquisition 
of the tribunitian power his person became Sacred and his decrees 
Inviolable and Infallible. Tremendous as were these powers, they 
were increased by the law of sacred treason, or Laesa Majestas, which 
made it a capital crime even to speak of him irreverently. He also 
acquired the lawful right toarbitrarily convene or dismiss the senate. 
Through the appointment of praetors he exercised a powerful influ- 
ence upon the magistracy and the administration of justice. Finally, 
with the office of supreme-pontiff he acquired lawful authority over 
the priesthood, the flamens, augurs, bishops, curates, vestal virgins, 
temples, sanctuaries, shrines and monasteries, over the calendar, over 
the coinage, over the fisc and over all sacerdotal institutes, preroga- 
tives, rites, ceremonies, festivals, holidays, dedications and canoni- 
zations; as well as over marriages, divorces, adoptions, testaments, 
and benefices, or church livings; in short, he became the Supreme 
Lord over all that immense class of subjects embraced by the Roman 
imperial, censorial, fiscal and ecclesiastical systems. 

After he had acquired these powers he appointed a new set of of- 



THE MESSIAH. 327 

ficers, of his own creation and dependent upon himself, to whom he 
assigned their execution or enjoyment. In carrying out these meas- 
ure^:, Augustus was evidently guided by legal advice. Force was 
seldom manifested; injustice was not openly displayed; and the rights 
of property, office, title, privilege, or custom, were rarely violated 
without a plausible pretext. The forms of law, which had grown up 
under the republican constitution, were employed to destroy the last 
vestiges of liberty; and the empire was enchained, subdued and 
crushed as completely as though its master was indeed endowed with 
the supernatural powers attributed to him by his sycophants and 
devotees. 

The college of Augusine priests was elevated to the same rank as 
the four other great religious colleges; the function of the first-named 
one being to establish rites, offer prayers, chaunt hymns and accept 
sacrifices, in the temples sacred to Augustus. The worship of Augus- 
tus, Son of God, was officially incorporated into the religion of the 
empire; every city of the empire had an augustal flamen, every house 
an augustal shrine; succeeding emperors themselves sacrificed to Au- 
gustus, and irreverence to this deity was visited with the severest 
penalties. Afidius Memla, for refusing to take his oath of office in the 
name of the divine Augustus, was ejected from the senate, and the 
ancient city of Czyicus, for neglecting the worship of Augustus, the 
Son of God, was deprived of its privileges. During the reign of Ti- 
berius the head was removed from an image of Augustus and placed 
upon another image, possibly of the same god. This offense was re- 
garded with such profound horror that it was brought to the attention 
of the senate, who ordered several persons, suspected of knowing its 
author, to be put to the torture until they confessed his name. When 
this was discovered the offender was summarily executed. For chang- 
ing one's clothes in the presence of an image of Augustus the penalty 
was death. For whipping a slave near the shrine of Augustus the pun- 
ishment was death. For defacing a coin which bore the effigy of Au- 
gustus the penalty was death, not because it was a coin, but because 
it bore the image of the god. This is proved by the next instance. 
For defacing the effigy of Augustus on a ring the penalty was death. 
For accepting honours in a colony on the same day that somewhat 
similar honours had been decreed to Augustus the penalty was death. 
It has been insinuated that the worship of Augustus was an idle form, 
an empty, meaningless ceremony, a mode of flattery, like that alleged 
to be still rendered to some eastern potentates. To complete this as- 
surance it will be necessary to prove that the thumbscrew, the rack, 



~\ 



328 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

the headsman's block, the axe, and the bloody remains of Roman 
citizens stuck upon lances at the city gates, the remains of men who 
had been executed for sacrilege to the god Augustus, were also illu- 
sions; that Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny and the other post- 
Augustan writers on this subject have transmitted to us a mass of 
falsehoods without the extenuating motive of either religion, interest, 
or ambition; that the myriads of Roman coins, found in the most 
distant places, stamped with the rayed image of Augustus and pro- 
claiming him in explicit words the Theos, or living god, the Sebastos, 
or Holy One, or else the Son of God, are forgeries ; and that the tem- 
ples erected in his honour and in which worship and sacrifices to him 
were conducted by a hired priesthood and enforced upon the people, 
were so many figments of the imagination. " 

Costly temples, altars and images were erected to Augustus in 
Rome, Nola, Pompeii, Athens, Piscennus, Proconnesus, Tomis, By- 
zantium, Cyzicus, Antioch, Ancyra, Samaria, Jerusalem, Alexandria, 
Lyons and Vienne, (in Gaul,) Leon and Terracona, (in Spain,) and 
numerous other cities, the remains, in some cases almost complete 
remains, of which are still extant; the worship of Augustus was regu- 
larly conducted in all these places; and all classes of men were com- 
pelled to bow to his images and to worship them, upon the penalty of 
death. " In Italy no such compulsion was necessary. Indeed, this 
worship stood in such high estimation that petty images of Augustus 
were used as charms, which were suspended or worn upon the person; 
and the larger images of his incarnation, which were erected in high- 
ways and public places, were, inthe absence of a temple, resorted to 
for sanctuary and respected as such. 

On the numerous votive tablets and other monuments erected to 
the worship of Augustus he is variously addressed as Liber Pater Au- 
gustus, with the thyrsus of Bacchus (3046), Jupiter Optimus Maxi- 
mus Augustus (6423), Apollo Augustus (534), Serapis Augustus (4044), 
Saturnus Augustus (1796), Savus Augustus (3896), Savus Adsalluta 
(5134), Sedatus Augustus (3922), Salus Augustus (4162), Mercurius 
Augustus (1434), ^sus, Baldir, etc., the numbers being those of the 

^^ The coins with the rayed images and sacred titles of Augustus are depicted and 
described in Cohen's " Monnaies Imperiales," I, 107, etc. They are also mentioned 
in Lenormant, 11, 170, and in many other numismatic works. 

^^ Soranus, a Latin poet, in the reign of Julius Csesar, was put to death upon the 
charge of betraying a secret. He acknowled no god but the Soul of the Universe. 
Lempriere, in "Valerius." It is therefore likely that his real offence was the refusal 
to worship the sovereign-pontiff. 



THE MESSIAH. 329 

inscriptions in Mommsen's "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinorum," 
Lanciani informs us that of the vast number of structures 6n the 
Palatine Hill which comprised the palaces of he Caesars " but one 
section alone remained unaltered throughout all the ages. "''° This 
was the section built by Augustus; the one in which he dwelt. It 
was destroyed in 1549. To this maybe added the fact that of all 
the memorials of the distant past which the Vatican preserves with 
the most jealous care is the marble image of Divus Augustus. Like 
reverence, however, has not been extended by the Italian govern- 
ment to his sepulchre, which, it is stated, has recently been subjected 
to indignity. " 

The church of Augustus tolerated no rivalry and permitted no here- 
sies. Agrippa, whose great services to the state might have evoked a 
popularity inconvenient to the Augustus, died suddenly at the age of 
51 years. After the death of Augustus, and by order of Livia, the 
innocent sons of Agrippa were put to death. °^ In the reign of Tiber- 
ius, Caius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, being accused of irreverence to 
the god Augustus, was excommunicated and banished to Cythera. *' 
The Egyptians and Jews in the city of Rome were ordered to re- 
nounce their impious worship or leave Italy at short notice. Four 
thousand of them were transported. " Junius, who pretended to be 
able to raise the dead, was forbidden to practice his art. The Chal- 
dean astrologers, and afterwards all astrologers, magi, and worship- 
pers of strange gods, were banished out of Italy. " 

After the death of the Augustus, which occurred, according to the 
received chronology, in A. D. 14, the army of office-holders, priests, 
sycophants and panders, who filled the capital, hastened to transfer 
their scandalous homage to Tiberius, his successor. For this they were 
at once rebuked by Tiberius, who reminded them that he was no god, 
but like themselves a mere human being; and he forbade them to ad- 
dress him by any sacred title, or even to swear by his name. Yet such 
an impetus had this worship received that his edict was evaded, and 
the courtiers swore by the emperor's Genius. It was perhaps to avoid 
a homage which he was powerless to prevent that Tiberius removed 
to Capri, where he resided until he died. In Rome he sternly en- 

**Lanciani's "Ancient Rome," p. 109. 
*' London Weekly Graphic, Nov. 14, 1874. 

*^ In like manner Tiberius permitted his favorite, Sejanus, to erect images of him- 
self in Rome: then he destroyed him. 

«3 Tacitus, Ann., in, 68. «* Tacitus Ann., 11, 86. 

** Tacitus, Ann., n, 28-32. 



330 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 



A^ 



forced the worship of Augustus, although in the provicces he added 
or permitted that of himself. He must have reduced the number, or 
else the emoluments, which Augustus had awarded to the Roman 
ecclesiastics, '"' for, without any other assignable cause of offense, the 
works written after his death, most of which were the product of 
their busy pens, sought to blacken his memory with hints of crimes 
which it was impossible for a man of his venerable age to commit. 

After the death of Tiberius the superstition of Rome attached 
itself to Caligula, and made him a god. Philo of Alexandria affords 
us a glimpse of this impious worship in his account of an embassy 
which he headed on behalf of the Jews. The Alexandrians sent a 
counter embassy to thwart him, and they met in the imperial pres- 
ence under the following circumstances: 

" Caius (Caligula) was engaged at this time in transforming the 
garden of the Lamias into a royal residence; and the rival embassies 
were summoned thither. They found him hurrying from room to 
room, surrounded by architects and workmen, to whom he was giving 
directions; and they were compelled to follow in his train. Stopping 
to address the Jews he asked : ' Are you the god-haters who deny my 
divinity, which all the rest of the world acknowledges? ' The Alex- 
andrian envoys hastened to put in their word: 'Lord, these Jews 
alone have refused to sacrifice to your welfare.' Said the Jews: 
'Nay, oh Lord, this is a slander. We sacrificed for you not once, 
but thrice; first, when you assumed the empire; then, when you re- 
covered from your illness; and again, for your success against the 
Germans.' 'Yes,' observed Caligula, 'You sacrificed /i^r me; but 
not to me,' and thereupon he hurried to another room, the Jews 
trembling and their rivals jeering, as in a play." A similar avoidance 
of this worship at Jerusalem is mentioned by Josephus; and when 
the procurator of Judea attempted to set up a statue of Caligula in 
the Temple, the dagger of some Judean Brutus alone prevented the 
profanation. 

After Caligula came Claudius. He also demanded to be worship- 
ped as a god. Josephus has preserved the text of an edict in which 
Claudius admits that the Jews had been unjustly treated by Caligula, 
because they had refused to worship him as god, contrary to the 
charters of privileges which they claimed to have obtained from Ju- 
lius and Augustus; and Claudius orders these charters to be respect- 
ed. " This edict was no doubt procured through bribery of the 
court officials; for Claudius soon forgot all about it and demanded 

** Suet., Aug., 30. " Josephus, Ant., XTX, v, 2. 



THE MESSIAH. 33I 

from the Jews similar worship to himself. Rather than submit to it, 
th^ Jewish people came before Petronius en masse and told him he 
might slay them all, for they would never yield to such a demand; 
whereupon he wrote to Claudius that if he insisted upon being wor- 
shipped in Judea, he would soon reign over a desert. Before Pe- 
tronius received the reply of Claudius, the dagger had also dispatched 
the latter; but not before his insistence upon being worshipped in 
Britain had sacrificed the heroic Boadicea and the entire nation of the 
lesini; who were as resolute as the Jews on this subject. The levity 
of Nero and the short reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius, diverted 
the worship of the reigning sovereigns to the dead and canonized 
Augustus, Son of God. But it appeared again in the reigns of Ves- 
pasian and Titus, who were also worshipped as incarnations of the 
deity. In the reigns of Domitian and Nerva, both of whom assumed 
to be the Creator and demanded and received divine homage, this 
blasphemous and happily always declining worship received a fur- 
ther check; so that when Trajan ascended the throne, Tacitus 
was enabled to write the passage already quoted concerning the reign 
of Augustus: " The reverence due to the gods was no longer exclu- 
sive. Augustus claimed equal worship. Temples were built and 
statues were erected to him; a mortal man was adored; and priests 
and pontiffs were appointed to pay him impious homage." 

Following Trajan were Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, 
Commodus, Pertinax and Aurelian, all of whom demanded and ac- 
cepted divine homage. But this was almost the last of it. The 
repugnance and resistance, which had begun in the provinces, after- 
wards manifested itself in the intellectual centres of the empire; and 
though it was attempted again and again to return to the worship of 
Augustus, the attempt failed; so that in the place of an odious and 
degrading religion, Elagabalus deemed it feasible to revive the an- 
cient worship of the Sun. The theogonies of Hesiod and Homer, '^ 
of Virgil and Ovid, were obsolete; the Julian and Augustan worship 
had become obsolete; and the worship of living emperors was repug- 
nant to the spirit of the West. Although this was the period of those 
numerous Mithraic monuments which now appear in the archaeolog- 
ical museums of Rome, Paris, London, York and Newcastle, the 
religion of the Sun made but little headway. The legions ac- 
cepted it, but that was all. Mithraism, too, was obsolete. Its vital 
force was long since spent. Elagabalus was supported by some of 
the best families of Rome, but the weakness of his cause and the 

*8 Cicero de Div., 17, 38, 67, 126, 248, 262, especially 126. 



332 A NEW CHRONOLOGY. 

opposition and hatred of the Augustan priesthood, whose livings it 
endangered, thwarted his object ; and have since loaded his name with 
obloquy. His plan of directing into a purer channel the superstition 
and religious fervour of his countrymen, though delayed for three- 
fourths of a century by the Roman ecclesiastics, was nevertheless 
carried out more successfully by Diocletian, who revived the Sun- 
worship which Elagabalus had established. But the revival was only 
accomplished at the cost of dividing the empire into four satrapies; 
and with this division, what remained of the worship of Augustus fell, 
to rise no more. In its place and in the place of the ephemeral 
Mithraism and of the Dionysian worship, which, according to the coins 
of the period, succeeded it for a brief interval, arose that later re- 
ligion of the West, which conserved the fruits of military conquests, 
that, without it, might have been made in vain and that absorbed all 
the other religions which these conquests had brought together. 

Emperor-worship is not so much the product of the Orient as it is 
of those vast hierarchies which could only ai-ise in the Orient, so long 
as the Occident remained comparatively destitute of population. The 
agglomeration of an extensive empire, embracing numerous races and 
tribes of men, differing from each other in origin, aptitudes, mythol- 
ogy and religion — especially when such an agglomeration is followed 
by the practice of transplantation and fusion, the whole empire being 
governed by a single hierarch — has always been followed by emperor- 
worship. 

The empires of India, Persia, Assyria, Egypt, Macedonand Rome, 
were all of this character; they all practiced the transplantation and 
fusion of the people whom they conquered ; they were all governed 
by hierarchs; and these hierarchs were always worshipped by their 
subjects. Some traces of the Oriental tendency to worship human 
gods is observable even in modern times. To-day, in Madras, the 
the statue of the British queen-empress is annointed with consecrated 
oil, strewn with flowers, propitiated with offerings of frankincense, 
and worshipped on bended knees by the natives; who call it the great 
Maharanee, or Queen of Queens, the Holy One, the Supreme God. 
That these are acts of piety and not of flattery, is evident from the 
fact that they are done furtively and in defiance of the police; who 
are instructed to prevent them. 

If on the one hand, extensive empire and hierarchical government 
furnished the ground of emperor-worship, on the other hand, the my- 
thology of the Orient supplied the seed. The incarnations of Bel- 
Issus, Nin-Ies, Tiglath-pil-Esar, Cyrus, Darius, Rhamses, Alexander 



THE MESSIAH. 333 

the Great, the Ptolemies, the Selucidse, and the other personages al- 
luded to herein, formed a series of Asiatic gods as well marked as 
any generation of monsters traced by the philosophic eye of Darwin. 
Even this line of gods, which, with perhaps one or two doubtful ex- 
ceptions, consisted of actual historical personages, was complemented 
by another series of wholly mythological beings. Such were the in- 
carnations of Vishnu, les Chrishna, and the Brahminical Buddha of 
the Hindus; Assur, of Assyria; Nebo-Nazaru, of Babylon; Osiris and 
Horus, of Egypt; Ormudz, of Persia; and Ischenou, Chres, Jasius 
and Bacchus, of Greece. 

Water will not rise above its own level. Man will not worship a 
god who is either above or below the poise of his own comprehen- 
sion. The gods have therefore this useful funct'on : they furnish an 
infallible barometer of the human intellect. Measured by this scale, 
the worship of Augustus was not at the period of his advent below 
the comprehension of the West, for, with the exception of the stub- 
born Northmen, we hear of no dissatisfaction with it. Rural Italy, 
Gaul, Spain, Pannonia and Southern Germany, all accepted or en- 
dured it; Britain, Saxony and Scandinavia alone rejected it. Nor 
was it below the comprehension of Egypt and Asia Minor, for only 
in Judeado any serious revolts against it appear in the chronicles of 
the times. But if, with the heroic exceptions mentioned, the rural 
populations endured it without repugnance, the great cities of the 
empire, such as Antioch, Alexandria, Athens and Rome, found it too 
degrading for continued acceptance. It was these centres of intel- 
lectual activity that gave effect to the revolts which emperor-worship 
had provoked in Britain, Frisia, Saxony and Judea; and it was out of 
this combination of popular resistance and intellectual disgust that 
arose a long and deadly struggle against the worship of Augustus and 
the wide-spread and firmly-rooted superstitions upon which it was 
founded; a struggle which finally ended in the adoption of Chris-^ 
tianity. "" 

®' The coins of Augustus commonly have the rayed image of that personage, with 
the legend DIVVS AVGVSTVS; or AVGVSTVS DIVVS FILIVS. This style was 
afterwards followed on the coins stamped with the effigy of Christ, the first one of 
which was issued by Justinian II., Rhinotmetus, about the year A. D. 705, with the 
legend d. N. IhS. CPS REX REGNANTIVM. There were several issues of these 
coins and some slight variations in the spelling. The small "h" is really a Greek "e," 
while the capital " P" is really a Greek " R." Sabatier's Byzantine Coins, Justinian 
II., No. 2. For Divos and Divus on Coins of Julius and Augustus, see Humphreys* 
"Coin Collector's Manual," plate 8. 

FINIS. 



335 



INDEX. 



Abd-el-Melik, 204. 

Abd-el-Raman, 60, 209. 

Abraham, 81. 

Abubeker, 203. 

Abul Fazl, 89. 

Abulfeda, 153, 166. 

Abyssinia, 69, 188, 194, 218, 220. 

Achaia, 162. 

Acrisius, 97. 

Actium, battle, 28, 181. 

Adonis, 120, 128. 

Adrastus of Sicyon, 136. 

Adventists, {see Second Adventists,) 2, 40. 

Adzatathat, 142. 

i^gina, 115, 120. 

^ra, etymolog^y of, 17, 

^ras, 18, 19, 29, 62 to 236. 

^sclepiades, 143. 

^sclepiades of Mendes, 170. 

^sculapius, 120. 

/Esus, 328. 

Africa, 234. 

Agapemone, 231. 

Agron, 130. 

Ahmed, (caliph,) 208. 

Akbar, (mogul,) 200, 224. 

Ala, (king,) 217. 

Alaric, 196. 

Alba, 116. 

Albiruni, 71, 74, 152, 182. 

Alexander the Great, 33, 66, 109, 137, 

151, 152, 310. 
Alexandria, {see also Egypt,) 68, 182, 
Alfonso X., 63. 
Alfred the Great, 208. 
Al-Mansur, (caliph,) 206. 
Althea, 160. 
Amasia, 184. 
Amazon, (river,) 228. 
Amazons, 100, 139. 
America, {see also Mexico,) 209, 212, 220, 

221, 228, 229. 
American Messiahs, 2, 113. 
Amisus, 130. 
Amli, 200, 201, 225. 
Amogavarsha, 207. 
Amsuvarman of Nepal, 200. 
Anachronisms, historical, 23,95, 97, 119, 

125, 152. 157. 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 

165, 167, 168, 192. 193, 196, 197, 204, 

215, 281. 



Anaitis, 103. 
Anaxagoras, 39, 

Anaximander, 88. 

Anazarba, 183. 

Ancyra, monument of, 20, 317, 319. 

Anjana, 128. 

Annus Magnus, r92. 

Ansonius, poet. 30. 

Antimachus, 29. 

Antioch, 65, 69,^* 156, 157, 167, 176, 178. 

Antiochus, 157, 159, 160, 162''. 

Antonio of Brazil, 234. 

Antoninus, Pius, emp. Rome, 31, 192. 

Apamea, 157, 

Apis, {see also les-iris,) 191. 

Apis cycle, 250, 262, 269. 

Apocalyptic cycle, 272. 

Apollo, 134, 167. 

ApoUonius of Tyana, 185. 

Apulia, 126. 

Aquilsea, 126. 

Arabia, 65, 163, 194, 196, 197, 198, 201, '^ 

202, 203, 204, 206. 
Arakan, 204, 
Arcadia, 99, 150. 
Ardishir, 192.'' 

Argonautic expedition, 94, loi. 
Argonauts, The, 46, loi. 
Argos, 79, 81, 97, loi, 106, 120, 148. 
Argyrus, 67. 
Ark, (Bacchic,) 97, 134. 
Armenia, 129, 135, 137, 142,198, 199, 215. 
Arnold of Brescia, 216. 
Arsaces, 159.^ 
Arsinoe, 160. 
Ascalon, 139, 162. 
Asia, Major, 222, 
Asia Minor, 167, 181. 
Asmonean, 162. 
Asoka, loi, 143, 158. 
Assassins, 215. 

Assurbanipal II., 91, 131, 132. 
Assyria, 78, 79, 84, 86, 118, 132. 
Astrology, 2. 
Astronomy, 2, 206. 
Astyges, 144. 
Athens {see Attica). 
Atia, {see also Maia,) 167, 169, 317. 
Attica, 79, 83, 85,* 100, 106, 115, 116, 

117. 135, iss,** 140, 145, 146,'' 149. 155, 

158, 165, 191. 



33^ 



INDEX. 



Attila, 197. 

Attis, 100, 105. 

Augustan games, 105, 116, 173. 

Augustine St., 140, 193. 

Augustus, 20, 69,^ 106, 108, 116, 117, 
118, 119, 120, 122, 140, 150, 165, 167, 
169 to 175, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 
185, 187, 188, 189, 193, 197, 198,''^ 199,^ 
307 to 333. 

Augustus Ctesar, 14, 20, 22, 27, 29, 52 to 
61, 307. 

Aurguti Tirounal, 165, 168, 198. 

Austria, 235. 

Ava, 143, 204. 

Avarsha, 103. 

Azaraica {sec Armenia). 

Aztec, {see America and Mexico,) 263, 267. 

Baal {see Bel-Issus). 

Baal-time, 5. 

Bab, {see also Barko, Barko-bab, Barco- 

cheba, Earkham, etc.,) 230, 233. 
Babylon, 65, 78, no, 120, 139, 143. 
Babylonian Table, 6, 
Bacchus, 9, ID, 56, 63, 43, 64,^ 65, 96, 

97,''* 98, 99, 107, 108, 109,^ no, 119, 

120, 130, 131, 132, 136, 146, 160. 
Bacob, 113. 

Bactria, 96, 161, 196, 197, 211. 
Baddukal, (a black stone,) 92. 
Baghdad, 206, 208", 209, 211, 219. 
Baharum-Gur, 196. 
Balabhi, I94.''^ 
Balli, 191. 
Baptism, 141. 

Barhaspatya, {see also Vrihaspati,) 75. 
Barkham, {see also Buddha,) 113,^ 192. 
Barko, or Barco-Cheba, 59, 191. 
Barko-bab, {see Barko). 
Begapoor, 22S. 
Bel-Issus, 78, 79, 86, 132. 
Belus, 44, 53. 
Bemrillah, {see Hakem). 
Bengal, {see also India,) 200, 201, 204, 

215, 216,^ 224. 
Berenice, 160. 

Bhagavad Gita, 3, 11, 42, 43. 
Bhartrihari, 63. 
Bible, {see Scriptures,) 14. 
Bisharee Mines, 194. 
Bitanna {see Bithynia). 
Bithynia, 132, 157, 162. 
Bithynium, 157. 

Black Gods, gi, 95, 128, 133, 165, 166. 
Black stone idols, 92, 96, 166. 
Bleeding Heart, 92, loi, I89. 
Bod {see Fod and Buddha). 
Boeotia, 218, 

Bombay, {see also India,) 218. 
Boniface VIII., pope, 32. 
Bosphorus, {see also Cimmerian, Crimea, 



Pontus, etc.,) 106, 126, 130, 138, 147, 

156, 165. 
Bralama, 40, 52-61, 66, 74, 191-2, 207, 223. 
Brahmo-Buddhic, 63, 64, 65, 70, 71, 77, 

119, 123, 128, 217, 223. 
Brazil, 228, 234. 

Bride of Christ, 232. 

Britain, 126. 

British Museum, 159. 

Bronze images, 106. 

Brumalia {see Brumess). 

Brumess, 10, in, 116, 119, 120, 123,151, 
187, 195, 207. 

Budantsar, 199. 

Buddha, 3, 18, 33, 52 to 61, 63, 64,^ 65, 
66, 70, 74, 77, 78, 80, 83, 86, 87,2 89,2 
91, 97, 98, loi, iii,''^ 112,113, 117, 118, 

120, 123, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 
132, 133, 135, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 
156, 163, 164, 166, 185, 189, 192, 199, 
209, 218, 235. 

Buddhisatvas {see Buddha), 

Buddhso {see Buddha). 

Budi Ela, 87. 

Budini, The, 130. 

Bukovina, The, 235, 

Burmah, 126, 128, 135, 142, 143, 191,203. 

Burning of Rome, 24, 282. 

Busentius, (river,) 196. 

Busiris, 82, 100. 

Byzantium {see also Constantinople and 
Eastern Empire,) 66, 67, 68, 69, 194, 
198, 199, 204, 216, 220, 221. 

Caaba, 102, 166, 189. 

Cabiri, 106. 

Cadiz, 106. 

Ccesar,(jtr also Augustus, Julius, etc.), 1 51. 

Ccesaria {see Khazaria). 

Ccesar's games, 106, 174. 

Cai-fong-fu, 146. 

Calendars : 

American, 228. 

Chaldean, 62, 140, 301. 

Egyptian, 15, 143. 

English, 228. 

French, 225. 

Gothic, 163. 

Greek, 15, 89,136, 140, 149, 154, 165. 

Gregorian, 220, 225, 228. 

Hebrew, 262, 301. 

Hindu, 165, 167, 190, 216,224, 301. 

Japanese, 219, 232. 

Mexican, 215. 

Moslem, 16, 202. 

Persian, 202, 214. 

Peruvian, 209. 

Roman, 15, 62, 144, 149, I55. 160,* 
162, 165, 169, 190, 194, 195. 202, 
206, 210. 

Syrian, 155, 301. 



INDEX, 



337 



Caiends of August {see Lammas). 

Calijoga, 74, 75,81,^83, 87, 103, iii, 151, 
200, 277, 280, 293. 

Calippus, 149, 253. 

Callimachus, 37, 107. 

Cambyses, 6, 144, 145, 

Candia {see Crete). 

Candlemas, 4, 12. 

Canopus, loi. 

Cantharus, (sacerdotal cup,) 102, 128. 

Canya, (Chrishna, Pococke, 292,) q, v. 

Cappadocia, 132, 139. 

Caracalla, emp. Rome, 32, 192. 

Carchemish {see Karchemish). 

Cardea, 159. 

Caria, 144. 

Carthage, 116. 

Caspian Sea, 138. 

Cashmir, 74, iii. 

Caubul, 211. 

Caucasia, 129, 130. 

Celeres, (jee also Select!,) 118, 142, 145,* 
146, 219. 

Cerasus, 189. 

Ceres, 10, 97. 

Change, Roman Year of, 13. 

Chaldea {see Babylon). 

Chaluka {see Seljuk). 

Ceylon, 136, 143,''' 204. 

Chalice {see Cantharus). 

Chandra Gupta, 64, 143, 152, 153.^ 

Chandra-manu, " lunar reckoning," 175. 

Charlemagne, 60, 207. 

Charles IX., (of France,) 225. 

Chedi, 193. 

Cherronesus {see Chersonesus). 

Chersonesus, 126, 130, iSo. 

Chesh {see Chedi). 

China, 65, 70, 77, * 78, ® iii, ^ 113, 116,'^ 
117, 129,135, 136, 142, 146, 164, 189, 
212, 214, 216, 222, 229, 231, 235. 

Chittagong, 204. 

Choiseul Marble, 7. 

Chorasmia, (Kharezm, or Khwarizm, cap- 
ital, Khiva,) 96, 132. 

Chorassan, 146. 

Chorazia {see Khazaria). 

Chow {see Tcheou). 

Chozaria {{see Khazaria). 

Chres {see Cres). 

Chrestonians, 132. 

Chrishna {see les Chrishna). 

Christ {see Jesus Christ). 

Christian ^ra, {see Jesus Christ,) 62, 187. 

Christian Age, 41. 

Christianity, 218, 220. 

Christians, 67, 127. 

Christmas, {see also Brumess,) 5. 

Chronological problems, 281. 

Chrysis, 148. 

Cicero, Marcus TuUius, 37, 116, 140. 



Cilicia, 183, 

Cimmerian Bosphorus, {see also Crimea,) 

106, 126, 130, 156. 
Cipar-issa, {see also Samos,) 106. 
Circumcision, 127, 228. 
Circus Maximus, 147. 
Citium, 159. 

Claudius, emp. of Rome, 25, 31. 
Cleostratus of Tenedos, 14. 
Clisthenes of Athens, 146. 
Colchis, 106, 219. 
Columbus, 220 to 222. 
Comana, 189. 
Commodus, 192. 
Confucius, 117, 164. 
Confusion, Roman Year of, 12. 
Conjunction, astronomical, 29. 
Constantine, 194. 
Constantinople, {see also Byzantium,) 199, 

204, 211, 216, 220. 
Consular Year, {see Lammas,) 149,'' 161. 
Copper {see Bronze and Money). 
Coptic, {see also Abyssinia, Egypt, Nubia 

and Ethiopia,) 69, 151. 
Corea, 219. 
Corfu, 106. 
Coroebus, 33, 37. 
Cortes, 151, 221. 
Cosentia, (city,) 196. 

Cres, {see les Chrishna,) 78, 79, 106, 292. 
Crestos, 140, 144. 
Crete, 83, 85. 
Creusa {see Crissa). 
Crimea, {see also Cimmeria,)48, 106, 130, 

132, 147, 156, 181, 
Crimisus {see Crimea). 
Crissa, 133, 134, 163, 
Croesus, 124. 
Cronia, 104. 
Cronos {see Saturn). 
Cross, (jf^ also Svastica,) 96, 102,109,140, 

144, 148, 160, 325. 
Cross-quarter days, 4, il. 
Crotona, 144. 
Crucifixion, 96, 140, 149. 
Crusades, 211, 215. 
Cukulcan, T13. 
Cumaricu Chandra, 167, 184. 
Cup of wine {see Cantharus). 
Curetes, iii, 117. 
Cyaxares, 124, 135, * 137, 138. 
Cybele, Mt., 83, 85, 103. 
Cycles, 18, 31, 49, 214, 237. 
Cyprus, 159. 
Cyrus, 18, 124, 138, 144, 

Dactyles {see Jasius). 

Daicles, 104. 

Dalai-Lama, (j^^also Tibet,) 206. 

Dalhani, {see also Deccan,) 224. 

Danse, 97. 



338 



INDEX. 



Danaus, 97. 

Danes, 212. 

Dardanos, 106. 

Darius Hystaspes, 14, 40.46,135. 145. I47i 

191. 
David-el-David, 215. 
Day, 237, 260. 
Day of Judgment, 40. 
Deccan, 218, 224. 
Decemviri, 6, 9. 
De Gama, Vasco, 222. 
Deiotaurus, 176. 
Dejanira, 160. 
Dekkan (see Deccan). 
Delos, 184. 
Delphos, 148. 
Deluge, 79, 224, 279. 
Demeter, 106. 
Demetor, loi. 
Demetrius Poliorcetes, 155. 
Dennus, {see also Dionysius,) 87, 95, 97, 

108. 
Deo, (island,) 215. 
Deoki, loi. 

Devil, The, 100, 124, 126, 133. 
Dhanaus, {see Danaus), 
Diana, 99, 116, 132, 141, 159, 193. 
Digambara, (jf^also Jains,) loi, 108, no, 

111,2 J29, 136, 141, 144, 145, 207. 
Diocletian, (emp. Rome,) 69, 194. 
Diognetus, i£8, 159. 
Diomede, loi. 
Dioneeus-Mater, 119. 
Dion-assa, 116. 
Diorysian Age, 41. 
Dionysius, {see also Buddha, Bacchus, les 

Chrishna, Osiris, Thammuz, Serapis, 

etc.,) 63, 64, 97, loi, 106, 109, 129, 

133, 139. 142, 156, 165, 167. 193, IQS. 

197, 198,2 235. 
Dionysian Cycle, 268. 
Dionysius Augustus, {see Augustus). 
Dionysius Exiguus, 33, 187^ 198, 206. 
Dioscurias, 136. 
Dioscurii, 106. 
Dirce {see Deoki). 
Divine Year, {see also Eclyptical,) 32, 39, 

40, 268 to 272. 
Divitiacus, 175. 
Diemchid {see Giemchid). 
Doge of Venice, 219. 
Dominican Cycle, 262. 
Domitian, emp. Rome, 30. 
Dorian Conquest, 97. 
Draco, 140. 
Druids, 148. 
Druid Cycle, 262. 
Druses, 212, 312. 
Durgha, 87, 97, 108. 
Durmuki Kali, 77. 
Dutch Republic, 225. 



Dyaus-pitar {see Jupiter). 

Easter, {see also Houli,) 187. 

Eastern Empire, (i'^^ also Byzantium,) 194. 

Eclipses, 117, 124, 137, 138. 

Eclipses, Cycle of, i, 39, 137, 247, 251, 

253. 255. 
Edessa, 153. 

Eetzana, 124, 126, 135, 142. 
Eight Gods {see Zodiac). 
Eis, {see also les,) 133. 
Eisis, 146. 
Egypt, 81, 82,2 86, 88, 95, no, 128, 130, 

139, 143, 145, 151,^ 152, 158, 166, 181, 

184, 189, 191, 208, 212, 216, 219, 266, 

287. 
Elagabalus, (emp. Rome,) 150, 193, 331. 
Elam, 132. ■ 

Elephants, Year of the, 196, 198. 
Eleusinia, 85, 86. 
Elis, 49, 103. 

Emperor-Worship, 29, 302 to 333. 
End of the World, 40, 211, 216, 275, 280. 
England, 208, 212, 228, 229, 231, 232, 

236.^ 
Ennius, 116. 
Enoch, 107. 
Epagomense, 36. 
Ephesus, 141, 193. 
Epirus, 160. 

Equable Year {see Year). 
Equinoxes, Precession of the, 27610 279. 
Eratosthenes, 37, 107. 
Eric the Red, 109. 

Ericthonius or Erictheus, 56, 85, 134. 
Esa, {see also Esus and les Chrishna,) 148. 
Esculapius {see .^sculapius). 
Esurbanipal, 135. 
Esus, (j^^also Hesus and les Chrishna,) 

100. 
Etiocles, 109. 
Etruria, 35, Il6, 164. 
Eudoxus, 36. 
Eugenius, 195. 
Eumolpides, 85, 
Eupatoria, 130. 
Eupolemos, 106. 

Europe, 150, 211, 215, 216, 224, 229. 
Ezra, 149. 

Fa-Hian, 123. 

Fasali, 199, 200, 201, 224. 
Fasti Consulares, 146, 148, 149. 
Fawn-skin mantle, 105. 
Festival of the Dead, 5, 212. 
Finistere, (cape,) 126. 
Fishes, Zodion of the, 103, 151. 
Fish-God, 151, 228. 
Five Planets, System of, 44. 
Flagellation, 116. 
Flamininus, 160. 



INDEX, 



339 



Florence, 216. 

Fod, {see also Buddha,) iii, ^ 113,* 128, 

189. 
Fo-hi, (see also Buddha,) 77, 189. 
Forgeries in stone, 295, 317. 
Foundation, Year of the Corean, 219. 
France, 225, 229. 
Fuslee {see Fasali). 

Gallaicans {see Gaul) 

Gallicia in Austria, 235. 

Gallicians {see Gaul). 

Gama, Vasco de, 220, 222, 232, 

Games: 

Augustan, 36. 

Caesarian, 36, 

Olympian, 17. 

Sseculares, 17. 
Gatty, Mrs. A., 9, 157. 
Garibaldi, 232. 
Gaudalquiver, (river,) 106. 
Gaul, 148, 175, 195. 
Gazi, {see also Ghasi,) 214. 
Gebel-Eisis, 146. 

Gelalean, (.f^^also Jul-al-addin,) 214. 
Geloni, 130. 
Generation, 264. 
Genethliam, 100. 

Genghis Khan, 199, 207, 216,^ 217. 
Genoa, 220. 
Geoponica, 213. 
Germanicopolis, 184. 
Gesenius, 119. 

Ghasi-Das, {see also Gazi,) 231. 
Ghazni, 211, 216. 
Giemschid, 125, 135. 
Girling, Mrs., 232. 
Gjemschid {see Giemschid). 
Gordon, Col. Chas. G., 232. 
Gotama, {see also Buddha,) 141, 142. 
Gothic sera, 204. 
Goths, 145, 197, 204. 
Gotland, 142, 145, 163. 
Grjecorum, (sera,) 153. 
Granada, 209, 215. 
Gratian, emp. Rome, 30. 
Great Year, {see Annus Magnus,) 40. 
Greece, 79, 80, 85, 89, 97, 98, 107, 109, 

115. 148, 153. 155- 
Greek monuments, 47, 295, 317. 
Gregorian Calendar, {see also Calendar,) 

225, 228,^ 232. 
Gregory VII., pope, 41, 63. 
Gregory XIII., pope, 6, 12, 258. 
Guimet Museum, 159. 
Gupta, 59, 192,^ 194. 
Gustasp, 150. 
Guzerat, 194,*^ 215. 

Habeas Corpus, 136, 147, 152, 162. 
Hadrian, (sov.-pont.,) 29, 191. 



Hadrian, (pope,) 206. 

Haicana, 199. 

Hakem, (caliph,) 212. 

Hakon, 163. 

Halcyon Days, 137, 163, 195. 

Halys, (river,) 125. 

Hannibal, 159. 

Hansa, 126. 

Har-Esa, {see also les Chrishna,) 148. 

Harsha, 201,'' 202. 

Hassan-ben-Saba {see Assassins). 

Hegira, 70, 199, 200, 202, 218, 224. 

Helios, {see also the Sun,) 104. 

Hell, 100, 127, 134. 

Henry II., 132. 

Hera, 103, 106. 

Heraclea, 126. 

Heracleam, 130. 

Heracleotes, 38, 126, 160. 

Heraclidse {see Heracleotes). 

Herat, 211, 

Hercules, 131. 

Heri-Chrishna, {see also Hesus and les 

Chrishna,) 148. 
Hermes, {see also les Chrishna, Buddha, 

Dionysius, etc.,) 7, 106, 137, 148. 
Herod, 169, 179. 
Hesa {see Esa). 
Hesham, 230. 
Hesiod, 46, 115. 
Hes-Iris {see les Iris) 
Hesus, {see also les Chrishna,) 59, 146, 

148, 163, 305. 
Hia dynasty, 78. 
Hindu avataras, {see also Brahmo-Budd- 

ha,) 77. 
Hipparchus, 138. 
Hippias, the Elean, 135, 
Hippolytus, 68. 
Hittites, 109. 
Hoang-ti, 77, '^ 80. 
Hoguera {see Hokeday). 
Hokeday, 212. 
Hokunott, 163. 
Holland, 225; 
Hom, or Hoomo, 136. 
Homer, 46, 115, 145. 
Horse, sacrifices, 96, lOi. 
Houli, {see also Yule,) 104, 163, 167. 
Huayna Capac, 223. 
Human sacrifices, 129, 147, 163. 
Huns, 126, 196, 197. 
Hwui-Shan, 113. 
Hycsos, or Hyksos, 83, 1 10. 
Hyder Ali, 75, 228. 
Hyperboreans, 251. 
Hystaspes, 145. 

lanus {see Janus), 
lasius, 134. 
Icelani^, 208, 209. 



34© 



INDEX. 



Ichthys, the Fish, 103. 

Ida, Mt., 83. 

Ides, 258. 

les, 7, 106, 133, 134. 

lesac, 158. 

lesanara, {see also Zanara,) 129. 

les Chrishna, (sfe also Vishnu, Cres, Eis, 
Esus, Eisis, Hesus, lasius, les, lesnu, 
Ischenou, Jain, Janus, Jasius, Jasus, 
Maia, Matrem Deorum, Maryamma, 
etc.,) 3, 19, 33, 42, 43, 48, 52 to 61, 64, 
82, 93, 95, '^ 96, 97," 99, 100, loi, 103, 
106, 108, III, 123,^ 126, 130, 132, 133, 
137. 138, 139. 142, 146, 147. 148, 163, 
164, 165, 167, 199, 202, 217, 233, 

lesdigerd, 202, 203, 204, 217. 

lesha, 196. 

lesiges, (j-^^also Iesygia,)48, 56, 106,126. 

lesiris, or Osiris, 5, 59, 82, 86, 88, 99, 
130, 131, 134, 156, 191, 192. 

lesnu, or Vishnu, (q. v.,) 40, 41, 58. 

les-saca, 134. 

lesu-chri, 199. 

lesyges, 48, 56. 

lesygia, 106, 126, 

leus, 164. 

Ilali, 224.'^ 

Illyria, 126. 

Immortality, 112, 134. 

Inachus, (sc'c also Bacchus,) 81, 98, 107,° 
109, 120. 

Incarnation mythos, 22, 34, 40, 51 to 61, 
302 to 333. 

India, 55, 78, 80, 81, 83, ^ 86,^ 87,^ 88, 
89,^ 91, 95, 97,''^ 106, 107, 108,^ 109,^ 
no,''' iii,^ 112, 116, 123,^ 128, 129, 
131,2 133, 136, 141,"^ 143^ 144. 145, 148, 
149, 152, 153, 158, 159, 160,- 165, 167, 
175,- 183 to 185, 189, 190,^ 191, 192,^ 
193, 194,199,200,^201,'' 202, 204,207, ** 
208,"* 209,- 214, 215,- 216,^ 2x7,- 218,- 
220, 221, 222," 223, 224,- 228,^ 229,^ 
231. 233,^ 234. 

Indictions, 181, 194, 206, 261. 

Indradryumna, 201. 

Innocents {see Slaughter of). 

Ionia, 99,- 106, 137,' 145. 

Iphitus, 33, 36, 37, 104, 107, 115,116,120. 

Iron, discovery of, 83 to 86, 119. 

Isagoras, 146. 

Ischenia, 48, 197. 

Ischenou, {see also les Chrishna,) 48, 56, 
103, 197. 

Ischenus (see Ischenou). 

Isis, {see also lesiris), 159, 192. 

Isskander {see Alexander the Great). 

Issmarus, 148. 

Issus, (Bel,) 78, 79. 

Issus, son of Mariam, 182. 

Isthmian Games, (j-^t? also Ischenou,) 100. 

Italy, 232. 



Jain, {see also Digambara and Swetam- 

bara,) 49, 75, loi, 106, no, 133, 136, 

141, 143, 144, 145. 
Jaloos-san, 228. 

Janus, 10, 29, 48, 49, 97, 99, 122, 134,159, 
Janus, Temple of, 159. 
Japan, 112, 124, 129, 199, 219, 232. 
Jaryna, Jeryernkowna, 235. 
Jasion, 106. 
Jasius, 49, 56, 86, loi, 105, 106, 134, 164, 

167, 260. 
ason, loi. 
asus, loi. 
ava, 190, 191, 
emshid {see Giemschid). 
esiges {see lesiges). 
Jesus Christ, 18, 27, 33,40,60,63,158,163, 

182,2 187, 204, 206, 211, 217, 230, 236.* 
Jews, {see also Judea,) 59, 62, 66, 69, 70,* 

71,^ 72, 75, 81, 83, 107, 139, 160, 191, 

203, 220, 222. 
Jezide, {see also les Chrishna,) 126. 
Jimmu, {see also Sin-mu,) 124, 129. 
Joanna Southcott, 229. 
John of Nikios, 15 n. 
Joss, or Josh, III. 
Josephus, 70, no. 
Jove, or Jovian, {see also Jupiter and Vri- 

haspati",) 74, ^ 75,^ 77,® 78, ^ 82,108,116, 

183, 189, 190,- 200, 202, 208,209, 212, 

213, 214, 228, 229,^ 261. 
Judea {see Jews, Yadu, etc.) 
Juggernaut, 75. 
Julali {see Jul-al-addin). 
Jul-al-addin, 70, 214,2 217, 224. 
Julian cera, 176, 178, 225. 
Julian period, 70, 276. 
Julian year, 103, 125. 
Julius Africanus, 67, 68. 
Julius Caesar, 12, 15, 19, 22, 33, 36, 58, 

68, 151, 162, 178,2 192, 225, 304. 
Julius Caesar Dionseus, (Venus,) 119. 
Jumsheed {see Giemschid). 
Juno, 148. 

Jupiter, the planet, (j-^^also Jove),4,44,83. 
Jupiter, the god. {See also Jove,) 4, 10, 

43, 46 to 50, 83. 
Jury, 136. 
Justinian I., 198. 
Justinian, II., 163, 204. 333. 
Jyotistava, 190, 209, 213. 

Kab-ben-Luayy, 163, 197. 

Kagoobie, 234. 

Kalachakra, 209. 

Kalachuri, {see also Chedi,) I93. 

Kali {see Calijoga). 

Kalpa, 41, 42. 

Kalpi, 82. 

Kanauj, 201, 202, 217. 

Kandra Gupta, {see Chandra Gupta,) 153. 



INDEX. 



341 



Kang-ti, 146. 

Kanouj (see Kanauj). 

Kanya {see les Chrishna). 

Karchemish, no, 124, 139. 

Kharezm {see Chorashmian). 

Khazaria, 126, 129, 138, 139, 142, 160. 

Khiva, {see Chorasmian). 

Kiao-chao, 2, 235. 

Kien-long, 77. 

KoUam, 108, 207. 

Konkan, 218, 228. 

Koran, 203, 204, 233. 

Korassan, 214.^ 

Kumbum, (city,) 2ig. 

Kung-f u-tsu, (j-f?^ also Confucius,) 1 1 7, 1 64. 

Lady Day, 5. 

Lagus, (father of Ptolemy,) 160. 

Laid Aladin, 216. 

Lakshmana Sena, 215, 216. 

Lamas of Tibet, 202, 217, 218, 228. 

Lammas (festival,) 4, 8, 10, 12, 146, 148, 

149, 161. 
Lanfranc, (bishop,) 214. 
Laodicea, 17S. 
Lao-kiun, 129. 
Lao-tsze, 129, 136. 
Last Supper and Supper of the Twelve 

Gods, 142, 173. 
Laukika, 77. 
Leap year, loi. 
Legislatures, 136. 
Leleges, 144. 

Leo IIL, (pope,) 206, 207. 
Leucas, 181. 

Leuco-Syrians, 103, 126, 130. 
Lex Regia, 182. 

Liber Pater, {see also Bacchus,) 63, 147. 
Libraries destroyed, 23. 
Liberty, political, in India, 55. 
Lifetime of the world, 40, 211, 216, 275, 

280. 
Lissa, 103. 
Lissus, 148. 
Literature, destruction of Roman, {see 

also Libraries,) 23. 
Liu-Shu, 116. 
Livy's Hist, of Rome, 155. 
Lokakala, 77. 
Lokkals, 54, 64, 66, 274. 
Lotus flower, 112. 
Logon Pater {see Bacchus). 
Loyangin, in. 

Ludi Saeculares, 17, 33, 160, 264. 
Lunar Mansions, 249. 
Lustra(j^(? Pentseteris and Quinquennales). 
Lustrum, five yrs., 35, 147, 148, 259, 260. 
Lycurgus of Sparta, 37,48,105,115 to 117. 
Lycurgus of Thrace, 109. 
Lydia, 145. 
Lyksea, 99. 



MaccabjEus, 162. 

Macedon, 154, 162. 

Madras, 190. 

Madya, (see also Madyes, etc.,) 98. 

Madyes, 98. 

Magadha, 152, 1 53. 

Magi, 142, 144, 203. 

Magi San, 199. 

Magianism, 114, 

Mahabharata, i, 56, 82, 83, 86, 87, 108. 

Mahavira, 102, 103, no, 129, 136, 141, 

143, 144, 145, 
Mahdi of the Soudan, {see also Messiah,) 

42, 208, 236. 
Maherat, 218, 
Ma-Hesa, 148. 
Mahmoud, 211. 

Mahomet, 53, 151, 199, 200 to 202, 230. 
Mahomet II., (caliph,) 220. 
Mahratta Sur-San, 201. 
Mai, Maia, or Maya, 7, 103, III, 117, 123, 

134, 142, 167, 169, 176, 182, 183, 317. 
Maimonides, 135, 140. 
Makala, 218, 219. 
Malabar, 207. 
Mandane, 144. 
Manes, 59, 112, 192, 193. 
Manetho, 66, no, 278, 287. 
Mani {see Manes). 
Mania, 112, 144, 159, 194. 
Mansur, 208. 
Manu, 112. 

Manvantara, Greater, 272. 
Manvantara, Lesser, 263. 
Mara, (the Evil One,) 124. 
Marathon, 145. 

Marc Antony, 28, 58, 179, 181. 
Maria, {see also Mai,) 209. 
Mariam {see Mai). 
Mariana {see Mai). 
Mariandynia, {see also Mai and Maryam- 

ma,) 144, 148, 159. 
Marina, {see also Mai,) 86, 144. 
Marissus, 126. 
Marriage customs, 128, 136. 
Marrying the Sea, 94, 219. 
Mars, 7. 

Martanda Varna, 228. 
Martinmas, 4, 7, 12, 123, 163, 167, 188, 

195, 199- 

Maryamma, {see also Mai and Marian- 
dynia,) 56, 89, 144. 

Mashonaland, 234. 

Masonry, 73, 75. 

Massacres, 212. 

Massin-issa, 160. 

Mater Deorum, {see also Mai, Mother of 
God, etc.,) 83. 

Maura, Sta., 106, 126, 181. 

Mauretania, 189. 

Maya(j-^^ Mai). 



342 



INDEX. 



Mecca, i66, 199. 
Mecklenberg, 196. 
Media, 134, 139. 
Mediterranean, 138. 
Medusa, gi, 138. 

Megasthenes, 55, 64,* 65, 69, 152, 
Meiji, 219, 232. 
Mekha-gya-tsho, 202. 
Melek Shah, {see also Seljuk,) 214,^ 217. 
Menapia, 126. 
Mencius, 164. 
Menephrcs, 95. 
Menophres {see Menephres). 
Mercury, {see also Bacchus, Buddha, Dio- 
nysius, les Chrishna, Ischenus, etc.,) 
7. 10. 61, 132, 137. 148. 
Merk, (market,) 10. 
Meroe, 109. 

Meshadi, {see also Messhiahs and Messi- 
anic.) 201. 
Meshdak, 198, 199. 
Messa, 10. 
Messapia, 126. 
Messenia, 119, 126. 
Messiahs, 106, 109, 126, 129, 201, 208, 

220, 223, 231, 233 to 236, 302. 
Messianic, 201. 233, 302. 
Messo, 9. 
Messo Theos, 9. 
Metempsychosis cycle, 275. 
Meton, Metonic cycle, 149, 251. 
Mexico, 70,^ 204, 205, 215, 222, 234. 
Michelmas, 5. 
Mikado, 124. 

Millenial cycle, 116, 218, 229, 272. 
Millenium, 211, 212, 221, 229, 230, 236. 
Millerites, 42, 230. 
Mingrelia, 94. 
Minius leus, 164. 

Mirzi Ali Mahomet, {see Bab.) 233. 
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, 42, 233. 
Mistletoe, 14S. 
Mithra, 10, 56, 133, 193, 331. 
Money. 100, 115, 120, 134. 
Mongols, {see also Scythia, Tartary, etc.,) 

219. 
Months : 

AssjTian, 10. 

Babylonian, 10, 

Civil, 248. 

Egyptian, 10. 

Greek, 10. 

Hebrew, 10. 

Hindu, 225. 

Persian, 225. 

Roman, 5, 149, 239, 30S. 

Syrian, 10. 
Months, shifted, 149, 300, 
Mooltan, 197. 
Mormons, 229, 
Moses, 83, 146. 



Moslems, 202, 220, 221. 
Mother oJF God, {see also Mai, Maryamma, 
Matrem Deorum, Virgo Paritura, etc.,) 
83, 86, 89, 96, 97, 104, 106, 108, 127, 
130, 132, 134, 139, 144, 159, 175. 
Muggee San, 199. 
Mundane aeras : 

Alexandrian, 66.^ 

Antiochaean, 66, 69.^ 

Arabian, 75. 

Byzantine, 66,- 67,^ 68.'' 

Csesarian, 70. 

Chinese, 70. 

Dionysian, 44, 63. 

Grceco-Egyptian, 66. 

Hindu, 64. 

Jewish, 62, 66, 70, 71,^ 72, 74. 

Masonic, 73, 75. 

Mexican, 70.'' 

Persian, 44. 

Protestant, 62. 

Roman 65, 69, 71^. 

Russo-Grecian, 66. 

Second-Adventitian, 71. 

Turki, 44. 
Musffius, 13. 
Musailima, 201. 
Muscovy {see Russia). 
Mutadid, (caliph,) 202, 
Mysore, 202, 208. 
Mysteries, Religious, 106, 154. 

Nana-sab-esia, 132, 159. 

Nanek, (messiah,) 220. 

Nara-Sin, (or Naram Sin, 79. 

Natalis Soils Invicti, (Christmas,) 120. 

Nauroz, 41. 

Nazaratus, 137. 

Nazarene, {{see Nazareth, Nebo Nazaru, 

etc., 187. 
Nazareth, 187. 

Nazaru, (j-^^also Nebo Nazaru,) 119. 
Nebo, {see also Mercurv,) 118, 119, 
Nebo-chadn-Izza, (Issa,) 6, 139. 
Nebo-pol-Izza, (Issa,) 139, 
Nebo-Nazaru, 18, 19, 22, 31, 33, 61, Il8 

to 120, 163, 289, 323. 
Necho, 106, 139. 
Neo Csesaria, 189. 
Neo Claudiopolis, 178, 184. 
Nepal, 208.* 

Neptune, {see Poseidon,) 95, 99, 100. 
Netherlands, 225. 
Newar, 208.^ 

Newcomb, (Amer. astronomer,) 215, 226. 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 117. 
New Year Day, 6, 11, 109, 130, 147, 149, 

161, 174, 225, 226, 230, 317. 
Niccea, 157, 214. 
Nicephorus, 67, 68. 
Nicomedes, 157. 



INDEX. 



343 



Nicomedia, 157. 

Nimroud, 44. 

Nineveh, 139. 

Nin-Ies, {see Ninus,) 84. 

Ninus, 53, 84, 130. 

Nissa, {see Nicsea,) 98, 109. 

Norsemen, 163, 212, 220. 

Notre Dame, 147, 148. 

Numa Pompilius, 122, 135, 144. 

Numidia, 160. 

Nundinum, 238, 239. 

Nychtherema, 259. 

Nysa, or Nissa, (Nicaea,) 98, 109. 

Obeidallah, (caliph,) 208. 
Odin (see Woden). 
Ogyges, (Deluge of,) 79. 
Old-man-of-the-Mountain {see Assassins). 
Olympiads, 17, 18, 35, 36, 62, 80, 85, 100, 

104 to 107, 115 to 117. 120, 197, 199, 

203, 259, 260. 
Olympus, 49. 
Om, 3. 

Omar, (caliph,) 202. 

Omar Khayyam, (astron. and poet,) 215. 
Orestes, 133. 

Orissa, {see also India,) 201.^ 
Ormuzd, 10, 137. 
Or-om-esus, {see Ormuzd,) 137, 
Orpheus, poet, 46, 112. 
Osiris {see les-iris). 
Osurt-Esen, 86. 
Othman, (caliph,) 203. 
Ourgouti Tirounal {see Aurguti). 
Ovid, 314. 

Psetelian lavs?, 152. 

Pagi, (cardinal,) 199. 

Palalia, 71, 118. 

Palamedes, 100. 

Palus-Maeotis, 131. 

Pan, 100, 

Panadorus, 69. 

Panathensea, {see Pentseteris,) 85,100,105, 

Panathenaic calendar, 89. 

Panini, (Hindu grammarian,) 151. 

Panionic cycle, 99, 108, 137, 271. 

Papacy, the Latin, {see also Popes,) 197, 

206, 232. 
Paper, felted, invented, 164. 
Paraclete, 201, 202, 219, 230. 
Parasara, (astronomer,) 45, 86, 108, 141. 
Parasurama, 4, 59, 60, 70, 106, 107,^ 108,'' 

116, 160.2 
Parav, 97. 

Parian marbles, 38, 117, 158. 
Parilla, or Pariliana, 32. 
Parsavanasa, 102. 
Partheniee, 126. 
Parthia, 159.'* 
Parvati, 97. 



Paschal cycle, 41, 153, 264. 

Paschal eggs, 114. 

Passion flower, 148, 

Pedigrees, 132, 164. 

Pegu, 63, 135, 203, 204. 

Pelasgians, 48, 93, 99, lOl. 

Peloponnesus, 97. 

Pelops, 104. 

Pentseteris, or Panathensea, 44, 48, 85, 

89, 100, 105, 115, 147. 
Perisades, 155. 
Perseus, 98, 131, 139. 
Persia, 65, 70, 74, iii, 114, 125, 135, 137, 

139, 144, 145, 148, 150 to 152, 192,* 

193, 198, 202, 203, 214,^215, 216,219, 

230. 
Peru, 209, 223. 
Peter, the Hermit, 211. 
Petrouma, (the Book of,) 99. 
Pharsalia, 48, 178. 
Pheidon, 115, 120. 
Phen, 267. 
Philippi, 179. 
Philippica, (sera,) 152. 
J'ho{see Fo,or Fo-hi and Fod.Woden.etC.) 
Phoenicia, 107, 150, 151. 
Phoenicians, 58. 
Phoenix, 81, 153, 267. 
Phoinikes {see Phoenicia). 
Phoroneus, 120. 
Phralaong, 142. 
Phraortes, 139. 
Picts, 126. 

Ping Vang, 117, 123. 
Pisa, (see also Piscenus,) 49, 103. 
Piscenus', {see also Pisa,) 132,144,159,176^ 
Pisistratus, 47, 115, 140, 144, 145. 
Pizarro, 223. 
Plato, 150. 
Pleiades, 123, 273. 
Pollio, 180, 322. 
Polycrates, 94. 
Pompey, 58, 167, 311. 
Pontus, 58, 96, 130, 132, 133, 135, l55tO 

157, 165, 176, 178, 180, 184,3 189,' 
Popes, 197, 206, 207, 211,^ 220, 221, 225, 

232. 
Poseidon, 7, 10. 
Pouppa-Azan, 204. 
Prince, Henry James, 231. 
Prithiri, 97. 

Procas, 17, 18, 23, 26, 33 116, 243. 
Prodis, 106. 
Prome aera, 191. 
Prototh-ies, 138. 
Prusa, 157. 

Prytanes of Athens, 7, 146, 154. 
Psammitichus, 47, 135, 139, 
Ptolemy I., 33. 
Ptolemy IV., 160. 
Ptolemy IX., 166. 



344 



INDEX, 



Punic Wars, 159. 

Punjab, 152, 153, 220, 232." 

Pythagoras, 122, 144, 147, 150. 

Quetzalcoatl, 60, 113, 205. 
Quichena,(j-^^also les Chrishna.Ischenou, 

Janus, Quirinus, etc.,) 20, 91, 113, 133, 

167, 174, igS. 
Quilon a;ra, 108. 

Quinquennales, {sec Pentseteris,) 35, 197. 
Quintus Sertorius, 166. 
Quirinus, {see also Quiche-na,) 118, 133, 

165, 167. 

Rada-gaisus, 196. 

Raja-saka, 228. 

Rajputana, loi, 108, 133. 

Rameses, 6, 143. 

Ram Singh, 233. 

Rayed-heads, 141. 

Reformation, 222, 223. 

Religious Collections in Mu. Guimet and 
British Museum, 159. 

Republics, no, 118, 13b, 146, 190, 208, 
216, 218, 225, 227, 229.- 

Revolutions, 190, 225,^ 239. 

Rhea Silvia, 118. 

Rhodes, 179. 

Rishis, the Seven, 64. 

Romana, or Roma, (Virgin Mother,) 118. 

Rome, 71,^ 116,^ 118,^ 121, 122, 134, 136, 
141, 144, 146 to 149,152,155,- 157,159,^ 
160,^ 161 to 163, 166, 167, 169," 176, 
179 to 184, 188, 190, 192,^ 193," 195 to 
198, 206,''* 209, 214, 216, 217, 220, 225, 
232, 293. 

Rome, Calendar, 12, 15, 24, 28. 

Foundation, 21, 26, 29, 33, 47, 293. 
Chronology, 25, 293. 

Romulus, 18, 26, 28, 29, 33, 116,^ 117, 
118, 122, 134, 144. 

Roum, 209, 214. 

Rubigalia, 122. 

Runes, 212. 

Russia, 130, 219, 226. 

Sabinia, 117. 

Sac3e,(j^^ also Zacu-tai,) 130, 135, 138, 145. 

Sacerdotal cup {see Cantharus). 

Sacred sera, 143. 

Saccular cycle {see Ludi Sseculares). 

Saka, 190,^ 194. 

Sakya Muni, {see also Buddha,) 143. 

Salians, 140. 

Salivahana, 20, 58, 123, 165, 167, 175, 

184, 190, 197, 204, 208,^ 216, 232.^ 
Samarcand, 146, 219. 
Samolus, {see also Samos and Passion 

Flower,) 148. 
Samos, 94, 183. 
Samothrace, {See also Samos,) 148. 



Samvat {see Sumbat). 

Sandracottus {see Chandra Gupta). 

Santa Maura (see Maura). 

Sappho {see Maura). 

Saptarshi, 77. 

Saracens, 194, 

Saracus, 139. 

Sardanapalus, 135. 

Sargon I., 79. 

Sargon, II., no, 124. 

Sassanian, 192, 193. 

Saturn, (the planet,) 45, 47, 104, 279. 

Saturn, (the god,) 10, 47, 48, 49, 300. 

Saturnalia, {see also Pentseteris,) 260. 

Schlatter, Francis, 42, 234. 

Scipio Africanus, 160. 

Scriptures, (the Hebrew and Greek,) 81, 

139, 146, 149, 153, 214, 224, 229. 
Scylax of Caryanda, 14. 
Scylax, 160. 
Scythia, {see Mongolia, Tartary, etc.,) 83, 

86, 117, 129, 135, 139, 145, 199. 
Sebastica {see Svastica). 
Sebastopol, 129, 184. 
Sebastos, 169. 

Second Adventists, 71, 236,^ 271. 
Selecti, {see also Celeres,) 118, 142, 144, 

145, 219. 
Seleucias, 156. 

Seleucus Nicanor, 33, 150, 153, 156. 
Seljuk, 60, 209, 214,* 217, 
Semiramis, 44. 
Sempronian law, 162. 
Septimius Severus, emp. Rome, 30, 32. 
Septuary week, 120, 135. 
Serapis, {see also Hermes, etc.,) 156. 
Sergius, 207. 

Sermon on the Mount, 142. 
Sertorius, 58. 

Servius TulHus, 136, 140, 141, 14S. 
Sevajee, 228. 

Sextus Pompeius, 179, 180, 
Shahur, 218. 
Shakers, 232. 
Shamash, 44, 116. 
Siaka {see Buddha). 
Siam, 143, 203, 204.* 
Sibyls, 8, 169, 318. 
Sicily, 179, 234. 
Sicyon, 136. 
Sidon, 150, 151, 162. 
Sikhs, 220. 

Silver money, 115, 120. 
Simla, 215. 

Sinmu, {see also Jimmu,) 124. 
Sinope, 156, 167, 178. 
Sippara, 79, 116. 
Siva-diva, 200. 
Sivaji {see Sevajee). 
Siva-Sinha-Samvat, 215. 
Slaughter of the Innocents, Ii8, 144, x6<). 



INDEX. 



345 



Smith, Joseph {see Mormons). 

Solon, 6, 112, 135, 136,* 140, 147, 149. 

Sothic cycle, 273. 

Southcott {see Joanna). 

Spain, 220, 

Spanish sera, 180. 

Sparta, 115. 

Srong-Tsau-Sgampo, 202, 217. 

Sulpitius Serveus, 69. 

Sumbat, 141, 175, 190, 200. 

Summons, The, 201. 

Sun, The, {see also Helios,) 99, 229, 331. 

Sun-dial, 155. 

Sun-worship, 331. 

Suparswa, 102. 

Surya Siddhanta, the, (cited,) 45, 69, 74,^ 

108, 213, 229. 
Suttee, 132. 
Svastica, 102. 

Swetambara Jains, 103, in, '^ 143,144,145. 
Switzerland, 218. 

Sylla, dictator, 31, 58, 165, 166, 302. 
Synoecia, 100. 

Syria, 129, 135, 158, 159, 183, 215, 218. 
Sze-ma-ts'ien, (astron,, B.C. 86,) 46,116. 

Taat, {see Tat,) loi, 117, 122, 128. 

Taiping rebellion, 231. 

Tamerlane, 145, 219, 224. 

Tamil Durmuki Kali, 77. 

Tanagra, 105, 126. 

Tanaquil, 141. 

Tao, (Taoists,) 129, 212, 214. 

Taras, {see also Neptune,) 126. 

Tarentum, 106, 126. 

Targitaus, 46, 83. 

Tarquinius Priscus, 140, 141. 

Tarquinius Superbus, 141. 

Tartary, {see also Scythia,) 113, 117, 207, 

216,^ 217. 219. 
Tartessus, 106, 135. 
Tasi (a Buddhisatva,) 218. 
Tat, {see Taat,) 3. 
Tathagata, 83. 

Tattoo, {see also Picts,) 114, 126. 
Tauri, 130, 
Tauribolia, 130. 

Taurica Chersonesus {see Crimea). 
Taurus cycle, 263. 
Ta-yu, 78. 

Tcheou, (Chow,) no, 146. 
Tel-el-Amarna, 83. 
Telinga system, 213. 
Temporal kingdom, 197. 
Ten-months' children, 133, 142. 
Ten-months' year,6, 133, 1 54, 1 55, 1 57, 163. 
Tennes, 151. 
Teshi-lunpo, 202. 

Thales, 2, 3, 6, 39, 49, 125, 138, 256. 
Thamoez, or Thammuz, 5, 56, 128, 135, 

137. 139. 140. 



Thebes, (Bceotia,) 109, 151, 218. 

Theo Alexandrinus, 95. 

Theodosius, 195.* 

Theophanes, 69. 

Theseus, 59, 100, 106. 

Thessaly, 178. 

Thestius, 160. 

Thirty-year cycle, (of the Druids, Veneti, 

etc.,) 148. 
Thirty-three-year cycle, 117, 145,151,152. 
Thoodandana, 142. 
Thor, 163. 
Thoth, {see also Thor, Taat, Buddha, 

Osiris, etc.,) 128. 
Thracia, 132, 145, 146. 
Three Hundred Selecti, 145. 
Thursday, 49. 
Tibet, {see also Cashmir,) 113, 116, 202,' 

206, 208, 213, 217, 218,^ 219, 228, 234, 

235- 
Tiglath-pil-Esar I,, 118, 130. 
Tiglath-pil-Esar II., i8, 19, 53, 61. 
Ti-Hoang, 77.^^ 
Timseus, (historian,) 21, 116.^ 
Timur-beg {see Tamerlane). 
Tippoo Saib, 200. 
Tirthankaras, (Jains,) 102. 
Ti-ssu, (lama,) 217. 
Titus, {see also Flamininus,) 160. 
Toltecs, 113, 204. 
Toroman, 197. 
Trapesus, 189. 
Travancore, 228. 
Treason, Year of, 197. 
Trebizond {see Trapesus). 
Trieterica, or Trieterides, 131, 259. 
Trinity, 220. 
Tripolis, 150. 
Troja Capta, 38, 48, 56, 89, 99,^^ 107,^ 108, 

109, 132. 
Troy, Capture of {see Troja Capta). 
Tsong-Kapa Lama, 218, 219. 
Tugluk Khan, 218. 
Turcomans {see Turkestan). 
Turkestan, 70, 132, 209, 214, 220, 225. 
Turki {see Turkestan, etc.) 
Turks {see Turkestan). 
Twelve Apostles, {see also Messiahs,) 144, 

169, 193, 202. 
Tyana, 185. 
Typhon, (winter,) 120. 
Tyre, 150, 162, 178. 

Ugrians, 130. 

Ulpian, 140. 

Ulugh-beg, 225. 

United States of America, 229, 234. 

Urturki, 132. 

Urukh, 132. 

Usher, (archbishop,) 62. 

Utah, 229. 



346 



INDEX. 



Varaha Mihira, (astronomer,) 54, 64. 

Varro, 118. 

Vedas, The Indian, 48. 

Veneti, The, 48, loi, 104, 126, 132, 219. 

Venetia, loi, 104, 219, 220. 

Venice (see Veneti). 

Venus, (the planet,) 122. 

Venus Melincea, 140. 

Venus de Milo, no. 

Venus Urania, 119, 139. 

Vicramaditya, 123, 129, 141, 144,165,167, 

175,'-' 190, 194, 197, 208, 216, 216, 233. 
Vicrama-varsha, (see also Vicramaditya 

and Seljuk,) 214. 
Vilayuty, 200, 201,'' 225. 
Vine cultivation, 134, 193. 
Vineland, (America,) 209. 
Viracocha, (messiah.) 223. 
Virgil, 321, 325. 
Virgin {see Mai, Venus, etc.) 
Virgo Paritura, {see Mai, Mother of God, 

etc.,) 148. 
Vishnu, {see lesnu, lesChrishna, etc.,) 82. 
Volga, (the river,) 131. 
Votan, {see also Woden,) 113. 
Vridda Garga, 64. 
Vrihaspati, {see Jove,) 45, 49, 74. 75. 209, 

213, 214, 238. 
Vulgar sera, 62. 

Week, 237. 

Weeping images, 140. 

Weeping for Thammuz, 140. 

White Huns, 196. 

Whitsuntide, 4, 12, 147, 161, 188, 211. 

Woden, 58, 113, 116, 120, 132, 163. 

Woolly-haired Messiahs, 96, 1 12, 133,293. 

Woote, 116, 163 to 165. 

Wu-wang {see Yeu Yang). 

Xanthus, in, I37- 
Xerxes, in. 137. 



Yadu (see Judea). 

Yao, (or Jove, q. v,,) 58, 78,'^ 82, 96. 

Year, civil, 255 to 257 

Acarnanian, 257. 

Babylonian, 255. 

Carian, 257. 

Divine, 242. 

Egyptian, 255. 

Equable, 36, 122, 125, 134, l6l, 240, 
243, 248. 

Equable, chronol. of the, 244. 

Greek, 6, 240. 

Hebrew. 255, 

Hindu, 255, 259. 

Julian, 36, 125, 215, 226, 240, 245. 

Julian, chronol. of the, 246. 

Lunar, 135, 225. 

Moslem, 6. 

Roman, 6, 240, 309. 

Sidereal, 207. 

Solar, 255. 

Tropical, 258. 
Yesu-Kai, 199. 
Yeu Yang, in, 117.* 
Yule, 163, 168, 188. 

Zacutai {see Zagatai). 

Zagatai, (Tartary,) 2ig. 

Zalmosis, 146. 

Zanara, {see lesanara,) 129. 

Zela, 189. 

Zendavesta, {see also Zotoaster,) 109. 

Zeus-pater, {see also Jove,) 44. 

Zinghis Khan {see Genghis Khan). 

Zodiac : 

Eight signs, 6. 

Ten signs, 6, 298. 

Eleven signs, 12, 13. 

Twelve signs, 14, 71, 78, 298. 

Twenty-seven asterisms, 260, 274. 
Zoroaster, 6, 59, 65, 109, in, 114, 125, 
135, 137, 150. 



CORRIGENDA. 



PAGE. LINE. 



12 


39 


26 


4 


38 


II 


42 


14 


44 


I 


47 


31 


51 


19 


58 


12 


98 


20 


135 


30 


148 


II 


158 


24 


162 


I 


162 


3 


181 


38 


186 


22 


249 


30 


255 


39 


261 


6 



For remins read reminds. 

After appears insert atj j9. C. 8t6. 

After return insert of. 

After annualized insert nodical. 

After at insert the. 

For Psammeticus read Psammetichus. 

After Rama insert or. 

Divitiacus B. C.57 should precede Deiotaurus B, C.53, 

For 348 read ^84. 

For 548 read 584. 

For a/ read about. 

For «/ read of. 

For Achcen read Achcean. 

For Maccabean read Maccabcean. 

For Oxyges read Ogyges. 

For a/^<?^ read j-zVi?^. 

For calendar year read j/^ar calendar. 

For remoter read remote. 

For Tenidos read Tenedos. 



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